A capacity crunch has taken place in recent weeks, caused by the traditional seasonal upturn in work in combination with a large amount of outwork being placed into the market by Polestar, after the group took on all of Time Inc UK’s work.
Sources described the demand as “unprecedented” in a part of the industry that has seen a large amount of capacity taken out due to plant and press shutdowns.
One seasoned web offset salesman said: “I’ve never known anything like this in more than 25 years in the business. For some buyers it’s come as a bit of a shock.”
Alex Evans, managing director at Telford web printing business Precision Colour Printing (PCP), said: “We are full now for the next four-to-five weeks and we have declined work because we just can’t fit it in.
“Some buyers have been caught unawares as they didn’t fully appreciate how the market has changed. People who place short notice work and are used to playing one printer off against another, now can’t place their work.”
Wyndeham Group commercial operations director Jon Hearnden said the group’s plants were “very full” between now and Christmas.
“We are trying to be as flexible as we can. We’ve had a case this week where a customer asked us to do a job because their existing printer couldn’t do it. The answer was yes, but where we have to lay on extra shifts or overtime it is reflected in the price,” he said.
“We are not being greedy, we are covering our costs and doing the job properly. One thing we haven’t done is handed a job back to the customer,” Hearnden added.
PrintWeek understands that production at Southernprint, which was cut back following the Time Inc loss, has been ramped up again as a result, in line with the 12 month flexible working deal agreed with the workforce.
Continental printers have also benefited as UK demand has exceeded local supply. Alasdair Gibson, UK sales director for German print giant Mohn Media, said: “Capacity at this time of the year is always an issue. Mohn are pretty much full but I am managing to squeeze the jobs in from our target and long-term customers.”
The situation could ease as Polestar begins production on the first of its two 96pp Goss Sunday 5000 presses. The giant press, which has a 2.86m-wide web and can run at up to 44,000iph, ran section tests last week and is understood to be printing sections for the Radio Times and the Daily Mail's Weekend magazine this week.
Polestar chief operating officer Peter Andreou said: “The amount of outwork we are placing has already reduced.
“We have already done a live job on the first 96pp and we are anticipating a quicker ramp-up on the second press, because everything we have learned on the first one is being replicated on the second.”
