No sooner has Steve Vaughan of Communisis told the BPIF’s
recent investment conference that print management is dead, than one of the
UK’s biggest companies, Capita, decides to have a proper go at the sector – by
poaching Paul Simpson from, you’ve guessed it, Communisis.
It’s a scary thought for those in the sector that a company
which signs deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds on a regular basis, in
countless industry sectors, could be moving into print management.
It will be fascinating to see whether Capita will be real
competition for the likes of Williams Lea, Xerox Global Services or RR
Donnelley GDS in the real BPO market. And that’s not to mention St Ives, which
has seemingly come from nowhere to clinch – according to sources, I hasten to
add – the Royal Mail deal. (I’m pretty sure, by the way, that an announcement
on that will be drop into my inbox sometime soon.)
I suspect that print management isn’t dead after all, even
though the margins in it are small. On the contrary, it seems that plenty of
people are still willing to give it a whirl, and good luck to them. Outsourcing
is still in vogue across business, and I can’t see a swathe of print management
companies suddenly dying on their feet.
That said, it’s been rumoured for a while that a lot
of M&A activity is coming the in the sector. Whatever’s happening, I’m sure
that the print management sector will look very different in twelve months’
time.