On September 24, 2007 Opticom International Research presented the results from the first independent study evaluating "The Top Suppliers of Woodfree Coated Paper" in Central & Eastern Europe Europe.
The study ranks suppliers of woodfree coated paper based on how well they fulfil the demands on a number of service and other critical supplier related criteria as well as the loyalty towards them. The new Central & Eastern European supplier Index ranking is based on 460 interviews with printing companies using sheet-fed offset processes in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.
Totally 28 different suppliers were mentioned in these four countries of which most of them merchants; 97 % of the printers have a merchant rather than a paper mill/producer as their main supplier of woodfree coated paper in sheets.
The Supplier Index ranking of merchants according to Central & Eastern European sheet-fed offset printers looks as follows:
- 1. Europapier
- 2. PaperlinX
- 3. Map Merchant
- 4. Papyrus
- 5. Antalis
On the total Supplier Index - combining both Relative Performance as well as Loyalty - Europapier takes the lead. PaperlinX, totally in 2nd place, shows the highest Loyalty Index, while Map Merchant, totally in 3rd place, shows the highest Relative Performance Index. In the case of the Loyalty Index, the difference between PaperlinX and Europapier is only marginal, however. On a total level, this means that the difference between the three highest ranked merchants is very small.
All merchants qualifying for the Supplier Index evaluation in both Western and Central and Eastern Europe have a higher total Supplier Index in the latter based on a higher Relative Performance Index whereas the loyalty towards the same merchants is higher in Western Europe.
In Hungary and Poland, two local merchants, Paper Hungary and Cezex, take top positions in contrast to Austria and the Czech Republic where all top three suppliers also make the total ranking list.