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Two rival greetings card printers are aiming to secure the future of their sector in the UK after forming a £15m strategic alliance.

The tie-up between Sherwood Press and Loxleys Print will allow them to pool buying power for materials and other supplies as well as cross-selling their services.

They said the alliance would “ensure price stability” and create a “critical mass” for them to offer a wider range of products and services for the greeting cards industry.

Although it is not a merger, the alliance will add weight to both firms. Nottingham-based Sherwood has a turnover of around £10m, while Loxleys, in Sheffield, has sales of £5m. Together, the two employ around 180 staff.

Jeremy Bacon, Sherwood Press managing director, said the alliance would play an important part in ensuring price stability despite rising inflation.

“It will allow us to form many synergies in areas such as purchasing, transport and shared values of lean manufacturing,” he said.

Loxleys Print managing director Tim Carrington said the alliance was “not only recognition of the mutual challenges we face, but a considered strategic response to the sector’s future needs”.

The alliance comes as greetings card printers face competition from low-cost overseas economies and just months after Bacon publicly called for the UK to maintain as large a production presence as possible in the face of competition from Europe and Asia (Print­Week, 13 December 2007).