We’re in It Together

Is that an advertising campaign theme? Not at all! It’s the strategy of companies that have adapted to market changes – both in packaging and elsewhere. We spoke with our packaging division director Petr Hajda about how it pays to have good business relationships.

What’s bothering manufacturing companies the most at the moment?

Every manufacturing company is mainly suffering from a lack of materials. It’s mostly about rising prices and about delivery dates. What probably changed the most in the Covid years is the behaviour of suppliers. Prices for input materials, as well as transportation, are suddenly constantly changing, and they need to be approached differently.

Can you provide us with some advice on that?

It’s important to think strategically in not just the medium term, but in the long term too, and that applies to both customers and printing companies. Companies should definitely take things like material availability and production capacity into account in their planning. Our clients have come to understand that they have to work with forecasts and reserve a place in production ahead of time. And likewise, we manufacturers also handle every order much more responsibly now. The prices for buying and shipping paper are changing rapidly, and they can affect both deadlines and quality.

Where are we seeing the biggest changes?

It’s actually all about relationships. The primary relationship between the supplier and the manufacturer has shifted a lot. Having well-developed relationships with materials suppliers is the key part. There’s also a need to constantly seek out new cooperation with suppliers, to think ahead. The changes have also manifested in our relationship with customers. Back in the day, manufacturers were often backed into a corner, and customers pressured them on prices. Now the wheel is turning, and companies are more like partners to customers. We’re betting on trust developed over a long period, and on quality, where we’re pushing ahead. We’re trying not to exploit the market situation, but rather to increase our performance so we won’t need to raise all our prices.

What strategy has been chosen by POINT CZ?

We decided we wouldn’t go down the road of belt-tightening, but would invest instead. We wagered on premium technologies and long-term tactics. For two years now we’ve been massively modernising to gain a technological lead over the competition. As for materials, we have above-standard supplier relationships, and we’ve significantly expanded our warehouses as well. Technologies are where our investments were largest; we bought new machines and software to help us with automation, greater speed and production capacity. The enhanced performance will bring us increased efficiency, less hours worked and cost savings, which ultimately will be most appreciated by our customers.

Text: Markéta Švábová, Petr Hajda