Guides
Getting print shop suppliers right the first time
Print shop suppliers assessed on terms rather than reputation: fifteen questions to settle before an account opens, and what each answer changes in the shop.
What to take away
- No suppliers are named here. A list of merchants would be unverifiable, would go stale, and would not answer the question you actually have.
- The question is whether a specific supplier can hold your house stocks, meet your lead times and handle a claim without an argument.
- Fifteen questions below settle that. Ask them before the account opens, while the supplier is still selling to you.
- Lead time and lot consistency matter more than delivered price on anything you print repeatedly.
- Second-source anything that stops a press. A single supplier on a house stock is a single point of failure.
A ranked list of paper merchants and consumable suppliers reads as an answer and is not one. Supply is regional in this trade, so a merchant excellent in one market runs a different warehouse, stock depth, and delivery schedule elsewhere.
How to build and score a shortlist from local sources
Start with the shops you already know. Ask two or three other print shops who they buy from and who they avoid. Your equipment dealer sees which suppliers keep machines running. The driver who delivers to your street every week knows the trade in your area.
Score each candidate on the fifteen questions below. A simple method works: rate each answer from one to five, where one means no and five means yes with proof. Add the scores. A candidate below 45 out of 75 is not ready for your house stocks.
Fifteen questions before the account opens
- Which of my house stocks do you hold, and where?Held in the local warehouse is a different answer from available to order, and it changes the lead time by days.
- What is your actual lead time, per item, in working days?Ask for the number and then track what happens, because a quoted lead time is a marketing figure until it has been tested.
- What is the minimum order quantity, and do you break cartons?This single answer decides how much of your cash sits on a shelf.
- What is the order cut-off, and how often do you deliver here?A cut-off an hour earlier than a competitor's costs you a day on rush work.
- How do you handle a lot change on a stock I reprint?Ask whether they can tell you the lot, whether they will reserve from one lot, and how much notice you get when a grade changes.
- Is this stock available in both grain directions?A house stock available in only one grain limits what you can fold cleanly and nobody discovers it until a job cracks.
- What happens when an item is out?Notice period, substitution policy, and how a substitute is priced. The answer separates suppliers more than price does.
- How is a claim handled?Damaged pallets, off-spec sheets, short deliveries. Ask for the process and the typical timescale, and ask another shop whether that matches reality.
- What are the payment terms, and what do they cost?Terms are working capital. A slightly higher price on longer terms can be the better deal for a shop that is growing.
- Will you hold stock for me?Consignment or reserved stock arrangements exist and are worth asking about even when the answer is no.
- How do prices change and how much notice do I get?Paper prices move. What you need is not a promise but a notice period long enough to requote before your prices are wrong.
- Can you supply the technical data?Basis weight, caliper, opacity, brightness and, for anything with chemistry attached, the safety data sheet. A supplier who cannot produce the documentation is a supplier who will not help when a run goes wrong.
- What does delivery look like physically?Tail lift, pallet jack, where they will put it, and whether that works with your dock, your door and the person who is there at eleven in the morning.
- Who is my contact, and who covers when they are away?The most useful thing a supplier gives a small shop is one person who knows what you run.
- What do you not do?A supplier who names their limits is telling you the truth about the rest.
Questions two, five and eight are the three that change how a shop runs. The others are important; those three are the ones you will be grateful for.
Fifteen questions before the account opens
- Which house stocks do you hold, and where?
- Actual lead time per item, in working days?
- Minimum order quantity, and do you break cartons?
- Order cut-off, and how often do you deliver?
- How do you handle a lot change on reprints?
- Is this stock available in both grain directions?
- What happens when an item is out?
Scoring sheet for the fifteen questions
| # | Question | Score 1-5 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | House stocks held | ||
| 2 | Lead time per item | ||
| 3 | Minimum order and carton breaks | ||
| 4 | Order cut-off and delivery frequency | ||
| 5 | Lot change policy | ||
| 6 | Grain availability | ||
| 7 | Out-of-stock handling | ||
| 8 | Claims process | ||
| 9 | Payment terms and cost | ||
| 10 | Stock holding arrangement | ||
| 11 | Price change notice | ||
| 12 | Technical data and SDS | ||
| 13 | Physical delivery | ||
| 14 | Contact and cover | ||
| 15 | Named limits |
What each answer changes inside the shop
Answer / What it sets
- Lead time per item
- The reorder point, and therefore how much cash sits in the stock room
- Minimum order quantity
- How short the house stock list has to be to hold everything in depth
- Lot policy
- Whether a reprint six months later can be promised to match
- Grain availability
- Which folded work the shop can quote confidently
- Claims process
- How much a bad pallet costs you in time, not just in stock
- Payment terms
- Working capital, which for a growing shop is the binding constraint
Suppose a house stock uses 50 sheets a day and your supplier's lead time is 10 working days. You want five days of safety stock. Reorder point = (10 + 5) x 50 = 750 sheets. When stock hits that level, you order. If lead time slips to 15 days, the same formula gives 1,000 sheets.
The arithmetic those answers feed into is set out in sizing stock from lead time and usage, and the broader sourcing picture, including lots, grain and storage, in how a shop buys and holds its material.
Consumables and equipment suppliers are a separate conversation
The same fifteen questions apply, with different weights.
For plates, ink, chemistry and press consumables, availability matters more than price, because these items stop a press and cost little to hold. Ask specifically about the item that has the longest lead time, because that is the one that will catch you.
For anything with chemistry attached, the documentation duty follows the material into your building. Safety data sheets have to reach the people handling it and containers have to be labeled to the current hazard communication standard, so a supplier who cannot produce the sheets is creating work for you.
OSHA's printing industry pages set out what applies in this trade, and disposal of waste ink, solvent and rags is a question for your state environmental agency about your own site. The map of the regulators a print shop deals with shows which agency owns which of those questions.
For equipment and service suppliers the decisive answer is local coverage, which is worked through beside the machines themselves in what a press commits you to owning.
Reviewing a supplier you already have
Once a year, put the promised against the actual on one page. Pull the delivery notes and invoices for the last twelve months. Compare the quoted lead time for each house stock against what actually happened. Count the stockouts, the late deliveries, and the claims.
Ask three questions. Did the supplier hold the stock they said they would hold? Did the lead time match the number you were given? When something went wrong, was the claim settled without an argument?
The review is not a negotiation. It is a record you keep, so that when a job is tight you know which supplier to call and which to avoid.
Annual supplier review, on paper
- Pull actual delivery dates against promised dates
- Count claims raised and time to settle
- Count stockouts and press time lost
- Check prices against what you quote from
- Ask if you still buy the chosen stocks
Keep the record. Supplier invoices, delivery notes and claim correspondence are ordinary business records, and the IRS guidance on what to keep covers the form.
If the review shows the supply base cannot support where the shop is heading, that is a capacity question as much as a purchasing one. It belongs beside what a second location or a new market demands.
Common questions
Should I always take the lowest delivered price?
No. On a stock you print every week, a supplier who is reliably in stock and consistent on lot is worth more than a small saving, because the alternative cost lands as press time.
How many suppliers is too many?
When no single one knows what you run, you have too many. Depth in one relationship plus a genuine second source is usually the right shape.
Can I get better terms as a small shop?
Sometimes, by being predictable rather than by being large. A shop that orders on a rhythm, pays on time and does not chase every quote is worth having as an account.
What if my only local supplier is difficult?
Then the second source is not local, and the lead time on it becomes part of your reorder arithmetic. That is a cost, but it is a smaller cost than being unable to run.
