Paper costs have increased since 2020 due to the pandemic and supply chain issues. Leading paper suppliers are now producing less paper, and increased pricing remains a challenge for those companies that don’t purchase large volumes. As a result, there’s been a significant impact on in-plant budgets for materials. In this episode of Ask the Experts, PCI Group President and Owner Chris Kropac discussed the situation.
“Paper costs and availability have greatly impacted the marketplace for in-plants and vendors alike. Over the last two years, stationery has gone up 50 to 60%. The advantage of working with an outsourced partner is our volume discounts,” Chris explained.
PCI Group’s buying power keeps costs competitive. “We have a philosophy here to have clients use our envelopes and paper because we have much greater buying power because we’re pooling all our paper together. We use the largest vendors in the industry, and our buying capacity is greater,” Chris added.
Even though paper suppliers are smoothing out operational issues, companies can’t expect just to add extra volume to the paper orders. “There are still constraints, so it’s very difficult to go out and get additional volume. We already have great volume and haven’t had any constraints,” Chris said.
For companies considering transitioning from an in-plant to outsourcing, reducing spending on paper is one more reason it makes fiscal sense.
