Less brash, less flash. That’s the low-key message coming from several of the UK’s top corporate printers about this year’s batch of annual reports. The glum findings reflect a year of stock market turmoil and an accompanying tighter grip on the corporate saddlebag.
‘Many companies have gone for a slight show of poverty,’ says Stephen Wigglesworth, sales director for CTD Capita corporate printers. ‘Some have definitely downsized their brochures, tried to cut out some of the glossy images.’ In printing terms, this can mean uncoated covers and no lamination to keep costs low, as well as being more frugal on color. Farewell classy, subtle tints. Hello black and gray monochrome.
Marketing manager Tim Royle at Royle Corporate Print agrees: ‘There’s definitely less color this year. What’s even more noticeable is the less premium-added value papers being specified. It’s rare now that anyone would specify the highly spec’ed, lavish reports we were printing two years ago.’
It’s also about being frugal with what you already have, says Royle, as well as being more considerate towards the environment. ‘We’ve now got a system that recycles as much of the press cleaning solvents as possible,’ he says. ‘We recycle about 80 percent of those fluids – there’s more to it than just using environmentally-friendly paper.’
The ‘green’ moniker is also proving important to Wace Corporate Print. This year Wace achieved an ISO 14001 accreditation, an award recognizing environmental performance and effective ‘green’ management procedures, now strapped firmly to Wace’s Swindon base.
‘We’re increasingly finding we’re winning work on the back of this,’ says sales and marketing director David Palmer-Jeffery. ‘There’s more interest from large corporates about using more environmentally friendly techniques, like using chlorine-free or recycled paper. One company was looking for laminates that were biodegradable.’
Another client firm, he says, has been inquiring about the possible use of soya-based inks, which are more green-friendly than oil-based ones. However ‘green’ concerns have barely registered at printers Pillans & Waddies, says sales director Philip Austen: ‘We’re ISO 14001 accredited but haven’t seen any large, wholesale, environmental rush in the last couple of years.’
Despite some interest in green credentials and lower costs – especially lower costs – some companies are still anxious not to clothe themselves entirely in budget togs. A quality sheen is still important, says Palmer-Jeffery at Wace: ‘This means that design agencies are fighting harder to keep their clients and come up with more alternative ideas which can reduce costs but still give the impression that they haven’t compromised on quality. The overall quality, I have to say, is still very high.’
Pressure on printers to cut lead-times is also mounting. Tim Royle reports that the printing time available to get the annual report mailed 21 days before an AGM is being squeezed to the max: ‘If we weren’t fortunate enough to control all processes on-site, from scanning pictures to thread-sewing and binding the reports, I don’t know where we would be.’ Pillans & Waddies’ Philip Austen has also noticed a marked scramble on last-minute report checking: ‘The number of last passes has definitely gone up – probably a direct consequence of all the recent press on bad accounting standards.’
Also, not all companies seem willing to sign on the dotted line when negotiating an order; Stephen Wigglesworth of CTD Capita says he’s seeing more foot-dragging to commit: ‘Normally we’d want five or six weeks warning to place an order with the mill. But there’s now a growing reluctance to commit to that timescale. In reality, it can cost you more if you give the printer less time.’ David Palmer-Jeffery agrees: ‘We’re getting three to four days to do a job sometimes, so there’s more pressure on round-the-clock production.’
There are also growing signs of changing annual report trends, too. Palmer-Jeffery predicts that in the future companies will increasingly begin to look at combining their annual report with their annual review, traditionally two separate entities for many companies. Part of the reason is environmental concerns; the other is cost-effectiveness, he says.
But any budget scrimping inevitably hits the printers, too. Wigglesworth points out that the cost of doing a job last year valued at £80,000 ($130,000) has now tumbled to £60,000 ($100,000). ‘People are quite happy to slash their cost by 25 percent one year,’ he says, ‘but they tend to get a bit twitchy when they think about increasing it by 25 percent the next.’
Pillans’ Philip Austen, however, believes companies could save even more money if they bothered to discuss with their printers how best to mail the report out: ‘Some companies still don’t realize how much they can save on a pre-postcode sorted mail-out program, which we can do. When you’re talking about thousands of reports going out, this can really save you money.’
