around 5 years ago i went to chertsey to meet with b&p at their place.
off topic, i began asking one of the more experienced blokes there the real running costs of printing based on the costs on CART fed printing. he said its pretty difficult to get EXACT costs due to every job being different, amount of ink going down dependant on coverage etc etc
he went onto saying the EASY rule of thumb for calculating per square metre was…
Fast Production mode = approx £2.20
quality mode for the likes of full colour onto vinyl = £6.40
anything in between, text combined with quality pictures etc = about £4
you have to remember the cost of your vinyl here too… including off-cuts when trimming/finishing. there labour, application tape and the same if laminating.
running costs a happy medium (unlaminated) would be
£5 per square metre on banner. (remember hemming on top)
£10 per square metre on Vinyl printing.
i remember Rodney gold around a year after this meeting posting on the boards his guesstimates and they were remarkably close to what they told me so i have always used this as a rule of thumb on calculating prints.
with the addition of bulk ink system lowering my ink costs? i STILL keep
to this pricing method as i see the move to bulk ink as lowering our costs yes, but not our customers.