Paper M&A

For Joe Morin, the in-plant manager at School District 11 Production Printing, in Colorado Springs, Colo., the story has been similar.

"Really, over the past several years with the M&A activity, we've seen change in local competition and a rapid fluctuation in product lines," he notes.

Maine, however, doesn't think the problems Stumpf and Morin are encountering have resulted from consolidation. But he admits that mergers and acquisitions do bring some degree of uncertainty.