You might well know Webmart as one of the UK’s foremost marketing services agencies, but we’ve also spent over 25 years connecting with, evaluating, assessing and collaborating with all the UK’s top commercial printing companies. So, we know a thing or two about the best places to buy print.

And we ‘digitally transformed’ our operation back in the early noughties – so we’ve an enormous amount of data and insight to draw on.

Which is why we’ve decided to share some of our insight to help procurement professionals and those tasked with running print tenders in finding the best print partners.

Print is a wildly complex procurement category. Unlike many commoditised products, specifications are incredibly hard to pin down. Each project varies in substrate, format, ink, manufacture, dimensions, pagination, data, finishing, distribution to name just a few of the variables.

And within each, there can be a dizzying array of variation, all designed to reduce cost, increase impact, promote branding, attract customers and deliver the right response mechanism.

One thing that catches many non-specialist buyers out is the fluctuation in the price of print – even from the same plant and the same presses for the same specification of work. Prices roller-coaster on an annual, monthly – even weekly – basis. So, whereas taking a pricing snapshot to base future prices on might work for many procurement categories, it’s often not appropriate for print.

All of which makes it a particularly difficult category to balance our goals of reducing cost and streamlining production while working in partnership with suppliers to realise the value they can create for us.

It might be one of the oldest professions (570 years old to be precise!), but things are never static in the world of print and print buying. Not only do you have to consider the impact of new enabling technologies on printing presses, fulfilment and distribution, but there’s also a wide range of global accreditations and certifications as well as compliancy and transparency demands your organisation is sure to want. So, it’s essential you’re versed in some of the background to understand the drivers for change.

• A Changing Landscape – Web offset, Gravure, Sheetfed and Digital Print
• Transparency (and opacity) in Print Procurement
• Print Accreditations and Certifications to look out for in Print Suppliers
• The Problem with 99% of Print Tenders 2021 – Print Specifications

Here’s some more in-depth print procurement resources to give you a deeper understanding of UK print buying as well as covering some of the areas you should consider when you’re running an RFx or print tender. We’re building out this page as a resource over the coming months. In the meantime, please get in touch if you need insight and information on any of these areas:

• The benefits of web to print platforms
• Data – and why you should include it in your tender
• Print specification – why it’s so important
• Brand compliance and colour reproduction
• The truth about UK print buying
• Case studies:
  • Leeds Beckett University,  King’s College London, a well-known high street retailer.
• Managing and mitigating risk during your print tender