TRADE UNIONSteve Sibbald, national officer, Unite
"One thing I have noticed is that the prevalence of inplants is cyclical. A company or a council will decide that it is paying to much for print, so some bright spark will say: ‘Why don’t we buy some print kit and employ somebody to do it?’ 10 years down the line, somebody else will say: ‘This is not our core business, we are a council, or a pharmaceuticals firm, or whatever; let’s close it and outsource the work.’ In a recession, non-core products are dropped and because printers are desperate for work, the contracts aren’t big. But as things improve, the printers charge more and it becomes cheaper to do it in-house."
COMMERCIAL PRINTER Tim Lance, sales director, X1
"I don’t think inplants are a good idea. As a business or as an individual, I may travel to different countries on a plane, but does that mean I should have an in-house travel agency? As well as that, the quality of print is often inferior as copiers may be used in place of printing presses to produce work. Ultimately, companies want to cut costs and back-line operations, such as an in-house print plant, are a cost that many will regard as unnecessary. I think we will see more organisations shedding their inplants."
DIGITAL PRINTERPaul Gibbons, joint managing director, KnowledgePoint
"Over the years, we have taken on customers that have shut their in-house print rooms in favour of outsourcing the work to our company. In their place, they can work very well, but I do think this move away from inplants is something we will see more of. If a company decides to outsource the work, that business can benefit from an operation that runs up-to-date equipment and a dedicated, skilled workforce. Also, an inplant is often restricted by the hours it can run compared to a 24-hour print operation that many businesses can offer."
MANUFACTURERChas Moloney, director of marketing, Ricoh
"Inplants have to operate under the same commercial pressures as print companies so the decisions made are also influenced in the same way. There are a number of options companies can pursue when deciding on their print operation. This could include running it themselves or meeting at a half-way house and maintaining the inplant, but asking a supplier to manage the operation. The company may decide to outsource the entirety to a printer, but all of the options must provide clear value to the business and respond to those same commercial pressures."
