Q3 Paper Outlook — Beaten to a Pulp

Banta buys almost all of the paper for the products it prints, Hilliker reports. "We've always tried to form alliances with a select group of mills and, in essence, work with them to sell their paper." He agrees that the current market conditions might present an opportunity for printers to lock-in lower prices through contracts, but he questions the merits of adopting that approach. "It depends on the extent to which you view your relationship with paper companies as adversarial versus cooperative. Banta takes the cooperative approach," the paper buyer notes.