Sector expertise
Print & Packaging
We help print and packaging businesses defend pricing, understand true cost per run and make better decisions from estimate to final account.
Why this sector
Your press has to run.
So does everyone else's.
The price is set by whoever is emptiest.
When a competitor has a machine standing idle, they'll quote to cover variable cost and little else. That number becomes the benchmark you get measured against, whether or not either of you can live on it.
The money is made in the make-ready, not the run.
Setup costs roughly the same whether you print 500 or 50,000. A gradual drift towards shorter runs changes your economics long before it shows up in turnover.
A busy press isn't a profitable one.
Utilisation tells you the machine is occupied. It doesn't tell you whether the work on it was worth taking — and the two are easy to confuse when the order book looks healthy.
Costs and compliance move faster than your price list.
Paper, board, energy and packaging regulation each move on their own timetable. Customer pricing tends to move once a year, if you push for it.
We understand how print and packaging businesses actually run — and why a full order book can still produce a disappointing year.
How we help
Diagnostics built for print and packaging businesses.
Five areas. One at a time. Each a fixed-price answer to a question you've been carrying.
Business Control
- Who can agree a price, and to what floor
- How estimating rules are set, and when they were last updated
- Shop-floor-to-office flow on make-ready, waste and downtime
- Key-person dependency in estimating and scheduling
Financial Performance
- True cost per machine hour, per job and per run length
- Margin by customer, job type and run size
- What make-ready, waste and reprints actually cost you
- Cash tied up in paper, board, consumables and work in progress
Growth Clarity
- Which customers and job types are worth the machine time
- Where you're winning work you'd be better off losing
- Price reviews backed by your own cost movement, not the market's
- Customer concentration and where the next work realistically comes from
Funding & Capital
- Readiness before approaching a lender
- How press and finishing finance is structured and priced
- Real headroom across cash and facilities
- Whether the next machine pays back, or just adds capacity to a full market
Digital & AI Readiness
- Whether MIS, estimating and accounts systems connect
- Getting job, machine and waste data out without rekeying
- Where automation removes estimating and scheduling admin
- A sequenced plan, not a shopping list
Impact in practice
The numbers behind the pressure.
Print and packaging is a demanding sector to run profitably. These are the industry realities we help owners see clearly in their own business.
60%
Of printers now rank wage pressure a top concern
In the BPIF's Q1 2026 survey, 60% of printers placed wage pressure in their top five business concerns, up from 46% six months earlier — moving it above both sales levels and the belief that competitors are pricing below cost. Costs climbing against a price others are actively pushing down.
Reference: BPIF Printing Outlook, Q1 2026
£1.2 billion
A year in packaging costs moving onto producers
Government estimates the shift of packaging waste costs from local authorities to producers at around £1.2 billion annually. Year one charged flat base fees per tonne — £423 for plastic, £192 for glass — and from 2026-27 fees are adjusted for recyclability. What you make now changes what your customer pays.
Reference: House of Commons Library, Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility
1.9% a year
The rate at which print revenue has been shrinking
UK printing revenue has fallen at a compound annual rate of 1.9% over the five years to 2025-26, to £8.6 billion, with average margins around 5.6%. The installed capacity did not shrink with it.
Reference: IBISWorld, Printing in the UK, February 2026
Ready to improve performance in your print or packaging business?
Book a discovery call to see how we can help.