Media price rise wide across the board

Companies have a few weeks to acclimatise to the recent round of paper price rises, now set to spread across the board into wide-format and signage. Sign and display supplier Spandex joins the growing crowd now committed to an increase, including Sappi, BJ Ball, K.W. Doggett and Spicers in the 8-10% range, while DES stands firm on its late-2013 bump.

Blame is placed in the plummeting Australian dollar in all cases, with both sign and display suppliers join the paper merchants in acknowledging the changed market conditions. Tightening margins have forced Spandex to join the ranks. In a letter to its customers, Alex McClelland, managing director, Spandex, confirmed the move but stressed that increases would be "well below the double digit ones announced by the major paper merchants," averaging around 3%.

According to McClelland, "This is not a blanket increase, it varies across product groups and all are in low single-digit percentages. Arlon vehicle wrapping films for example decreased in price last year and, even with this year's increase, are still below what they were pre-2013."

The letter emphasises that the business's margins are tightly controlled, and that in the light of up to 18% drop in the Aussie dollar impacting its raw material prices, Spandex was unable to absorb the decline. It reaffirms its own range of large format media ImagePerfect with over 90 digital sign materials, remains its best value offering.

Packaging and display specialist DES holds back from announcing any raises for the time being, standing firm on an increase implemented in September last year. Speaking with Print21, Russell Cavenagh, sales and marketing director, DES, agrees with the market sentiment that the falling dollar was too significant to be ignored or absorbed.

"The currency drop was a big one. It was hovering at well over a dollar for an extended period, but when it dropped back down under 80 we acted and rolled out a 3-7% increase depending where we sourced it from. This all happened back in September. We're not announcing anything now," said Cavenagh.

For the final paper tally - K.W. Doggett has committed an up to 10.5% increase, from March 17; BJ Ball says 8% from March 31; Spicers is 9%, also from March 31; and Sappi confirms 8-10% across all grades, sheets and reels from April 1.