Mike Wheat, chairman, The Aims Group
Yes. The Aims Group paper consortium has 11 independent UK-based paper companies. We have combined our purchasing power, which has allowed us to compete on a level playing field with the large multinational merchants. Recently, we have used the group power to pitch successfully for a large educational tender, something we would not have achieved as individual members. Our strength has been getting the right deals. We offer a highly personal and individual service and customers know that when they phone any Aims business they can talk to the person that makes decisions, something, which I suspect the major merchants cannot offer.

Laurence Roberts, managing director, Agfa
It’s all very well people getting together and swapping ideas and technology, but whether it generates any business in your actual country is another matter. People talking to each other who are in the same sector is a good thing, but whether it’s any more than the swapping of information I would personally doubt. It wouldn’t work from a procurement point of view because, if you take a company like Agfa, we have a pricing policy per country. We don’t price a European price or world price because of the exchange problem.

Paul Mursell, managing director, Blue Printing Group
Printers coming together would be good for print, but it could also be a bad thing. Anything that brings printers together and stops them from going around cutting each others throats with silly prices would be a fantastic thing. I am not sure how it would work for print in the UK though. I liken a consortium to communism, a nice idea that never works. Clients want to know who they are dealing with, they don’t want to be working with other printers they aren’t already comfortable with. And what will probably happen is the printers will be going behind each others back offering the work cheaper anyway.

Gary Smith, procurement and operations manager, Redactive Media Group
If they’re set up correctly and they operate smoothly, as though you’re dealing with one business, then I don’t see a problem with consortiums. If anything, it brings more options in a single solution and that can only be a benefit to the buyer. However, if it’s not set up correctly, it could become a real problem for the buyer. There has to be a central production person or customer services person handling everything for you. There is also a risk that the UK printer could end up just being a farmer for the EU market, but if they’ve discussed it correctly then it should be a benefit.