Solopress has launched Forge, a closed procurement platform offering verified trade buyers exclusive pricing and automated quoting.
Exclusive trade pricing, automated file recognition, and white-label fulfilment are central to Forge, a dedicated trade procurement platform launched by Solopress following its unveiling at The Print Show 2026. Presented to visitors at the NEC Birmingham, the closed digital portal gives commercial printers, print managers, resellers, and brokers a streamlined route into the company’s high-capacity manufacturing operations.
Developed to eliminate reliance on public retail ecommerce storefronts, Forge provides approved trade partners with protected wholesale rates. The platform supports dual ordering workflows, enabling trade buyers to configure custom orders from physical specifications such as stock weight, binding, and finishing, or simply upload print-ready artwork for automatic product and dimension recognition. In-built pre-flight tools inspect files for errors prior to submission, reducing manual prepress intervention and repressing reprint costs.
CEO at Solopress, Simon Cooper, commented, “Online print has been shaped for more than a quarter of a century by product pages, search engines and ecommerce journeys built for general buyers. That model has worked very well, but it does not always reflect the way many professional print buyers need to source, quote and order work. Forge gives verified trade customers a different route. They can start with the spec or the artwork, access exclusive trade pricing, build quotes quickly and order through Solopress production while keeping control of their customer relationship.”
Head of Partnerships at Solopress, Graham Hunstone, added, “One of the most powerful things about Forge is that it lets printers and resellers keep their customer, keep their brand and decide their own selling price and margin, while having Solopress production behind them. For approved trade customers, there is no licence fee, no monthly subscription and no setup charge. Forge gives them a way to use our production capability almost like their own production hub, whether they need to quote faster, take on work beyond their own kit or support customers with a broader print offer.”
Alongside traditional commercial print, the platform hosts an extended catalogue of promotional merchandise unavailable on the public website. Orders are fulfilled through unbranded, white-label packaging to allow trade customers to use Solopress as either a primary production facility or a flexible overflow partner.