‘Smarter printing’ could save UK businesses up to £2,100 million annually, finds cebr study
Lower printing costs to benefit businesses across all sectors - delivering productivity gains, reduced waste and improved environmental performance
Slough, United Kingdom, 15th September 2009: A major new survey undertaken by leading independent economics consultancy, centre for economics and business research (cebr), on behalf of OKI Printing Solutions, has found that smarter printing could save firms and other organisations across the UK between £900 million and £2,100 million per year on printing costs.
The report estimates that £360 million of these savings could come from replacing expensive outsourced printing with printing in‐house, while between £500 million and £1,760 million could come from more efficient management of existing in‐house printing tasks.
The study, Smarter print management – controlling costs and environmental impacts in the United Kingdom, found that in total The UK spends around £5,800 million per year on outsourced printing and £14,300 million per year on in‐house printing, resulting in a total annual printing bill for UK business is around £20,100 million. “This is larger in size than the entire UK accountancy sector,” says Phil Scrase, UK managing director & vice president, Western Region, OKI Printing Solutions. “It is clear that trimming costs in this area could have a huge impact on business efficiency.
“There is a real opportunity here for ‘smart printing’, or better printing techniques, to make a significant contribution to improved productivity and competitive edge. In responding to this, OKI Printing Solutions has both the technology and knowledge to help organisations manage their in-house printing more cost-effectively.”
The largest potential beneficiary sectors of more efficient printing are estimated to be (potential annual cost saving)
• Education (£245 million, equivalent to 9,800 new graduate teachers);
• Architectural activities and technical consultancy (£238 million, equivalent to 1,737 starter homes at an average price of £137,000);
• Public administration and defence (£213 million, equivalent to covering the annual council tax of 155,134 band D homes at an average of £1,373).
According to the report, saving on printing costs could benefit businesses across all sectors and contribute to a gain in UK productivity of around one fourteenth of a percentage point. That is to say, that businesses save an average of 0.07 per cent of the economy’s gross value added through more efficient printing.
These productivity benefits would spread throughout the UK economy making business more internationally competitive, boosting exports and business investment and reducing imports and consumer prices.
cebr forecasts that a shift to more efficient printing practices could boost GDP by up to £2,840 million and net exports by £220 million as more efficient UK companies compete more effectively across the world. It expects economic change of this kind to lead to an investment boost of up to £810 million.
The wider environmental consequences of this increase in efficiency are substantial. If companies adopted the most efficient printing processes, resource usage could be reduced by the equivalent of up to 170,000 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) a year, which equates to 599,000 barrels of oil equivalent per year or taking around 46,000 cars off the UK’s roads.
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Notes to Editors:
About cebr
The Centre for Economics and Business Research Ltd (cebr) is an independent economic research consultancy established in 1992. It provides advice to City institutions, trade associations, local, national and international government, government agencies and the private sector.
About the cebr study
The report, entitled, Smarter print management – controlling costs and environmental impacts in the United Kingdom, presents cebr’s assessment of cost savings available for United Kingdom (UK) firms from more efficient management of their printing functions.
About OKI Printing Solutions
OKI Printing Solutions UK is a division of OKI Printing Solutions, a global business-to-business brand dedicated to creating professional in-house printed communications products, applications and services which are designed to increase the efficiency of today’s and tomorrow’s businesses. The company’s annual turnover across the EMEA region is 102.0 billion yen (FY07), accounting for 54.3% of OKI Printing Solutions’ worldwide turnover which represented record year-on-year growth of 10%.
OKI Printing Solutions is well-established as one of EMEA’s leading print brands, in terms of value and units shipped. The group’s product portfolio comprises six distinct segments: colour and mono printers, multifunctional devices, which combine printing, copying, scanning and faxing functionalities, as well as Serial Dot Matrix printers, faxes and specialty printers for point-of-sales and manufacturing. Established in 1990, the EMEA group now employs 1,200 people in 21 production sites and sales offices and is represented in 60 countries throughout the region.
OKI Printing Solutions is the brand name of OKI Data Corporation, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd., established in 1881 and Japan’s first telecommunications manufacturer.
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Press Contact
Nadia Nizar
OKI Printing Solutions
550 Dundee Road
Slough
SL1 4LE UK
Tel: +44 (0)1753 819 819
Email: nadia.nizar@okieurope.co.uk
OR
Hayley Cheshire
The Whiteoaks Consultancy
24 West Street
Farnham
GU9 7DR
Tel: +44 (0)1252 727 313
Email: hayleyc@whiteoaks.co.uk
