In the modern print industry, success increasingly depends on more than the equipment on your shop floor. As businesses face mounting pressure to improve efficiency, diversify their offering, and respond to changing customer demands, many are looking beyond their own four walls for support. Securing and maintaining partnerships with suppliers, technology providers, consultants, and even fellow print companies can help print service providers (PSPs) grow. What is more, the nature of these relationships has also evolved from a largely transactional arrangement, to being built around shared expertise, ongoing support, and collaborative problem-solving. Here, Print Monthly explores how PSPs are forming stronger partnerships across the supply chain, what they look for in a 57 www.printmonthly.co.uk Issue 361 - July | August 2026 WORKING WITH SUPPLIERS | ROB FLETCHER Establishing strategic partnerships with trusted suppliers is becoming a central way to access new capabilities without taking on all the cost and risk alone. Print Monthlytakes a closer look at the value of these relationships THE VALUE OF BUILDING A LONG-TERM PARTNERSHIP successful collaboration, and how working closely with trusted partners can help drive growth, improve resilience, and create long-term value. Knowledge, Insights, and Support Soyang Europe offers solutions across both materials and, through its Soyang Hardware arm, machinery. Oliver Mashiter, sales director at Soyang Europe, agrees that the customer relationship has changed from transactional to a more strategic partnership, with PSPs now looking for a collaboration that will improve productivity, profitability, and competitiveness, rather than simply processing orders. “Rising operational pressures, tighter margins, and faster turnaround expectations mean customers now expect suppliers to act more like consultants than simple vendors, offering industry knowledge, product insights, and technical support to their clients,” Mashiter says. “Customers are also looking for suppliers to understand the production environments from start to finish. They are looking for partners that can make recommendations on end-to-end workflows or integration into existing workflows, rather than recommending products in isolation.” As to the areas PSPs can work with supplier partners on, Mashiter highlights several, stand-out challenges. First, he says that a partnership can help a PSP expand application diversity across various markets, allowing them to diversify profitability, and move beyond traditional print markets and sectors into new, profitable areas.
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