Simon Beard, sales director, Victoria litho
I have now received a third letter from our paper merchants advising increases from 5 April 2010.  When are the merchants going to take stock and realise that they will never trade out of this debt they have incurred and recover their losses, and that the small printers who are surviving this recession are picking up the costs for bad debt. Suppliers of ink, paper, chemical sundries and machine manufacturers should not deal in any way, either cash sales or pro forma invoices, with phoenix companies.The government should stand firm and introduce legislation to stop this happening, and help the smaller business to survive.

Kirk Galloway, director and general manager, Buxton Press
Paper mills need to try and recoup some of their trading losses in order to survive, but to further set back an industry that is starting to show signs of twitching back into life does seem to demonstrate a lack of understanding of the extreme difficulties we are currently experiencing. The impact of price rises will be felt not only by those who put ink on paper, but also by the publishers on whom we all depend. Many, already hit by the loss of advertising revenue, will find it too difficult to continue, which will further delay the early recovery of our market sector.

Andy Bird, managing director, Folio Print Finishers
I watch the paper prices with interest. Trade finishers started getting asked to cut prices when print management came along. The reality is, we only offer labour so we can’t go lower, finishers had to take a stand about 18 months ago. As an industry we are unique, there is a fear of passing on price increases like the paper price rises to customers. In other industries, if the price of something goes up it is accepted that the increase passes on through the chain. But in print, the assumption is you have to absorb the cost into the business. It is hard to know where the regeneration is going to come from if we carry on like that, print really needs to take a look at itself.

Paul Dawe, managing director, CMP (UK)
The paper price increase announced by the merchants has been very much forced upon us. In the past 15 years, I’ve never seen so many increases in such a short amount of time, it’s almost comical. They are forcing prices up on a supply and demand basis, and many printers simply can’t pass this on. They also seem to be making margins on this, while the buck stops with us. The loyalty we had to suppliers goes out the window when your business is being squeezed like this. The secondary impact is that it’s also very time consuming, especially for SME printers that don’t have the same time or resources. It will have a huge impact.