So. This could be it then. The long-anticipated and much-speculated-about tipping point that triggers a further wave of consolidation that will shape the future of UK Web Offset plc.

Now that IPC has finally made its decision, and Wyndeham are the winners at St Ives' expense, what happens next?

Life will get much busier at Heron, Impact and Southernprint for one thing. I remain unconvinced that they can actually print (and bind) all this additional work, so will that mean knock-on moves for some other titles? There are other factors at play too that could free up some Walstead capacity, of course, such as Bauer's current review.

While the plaudits for winning such a prestigious contract must go to the Wyndeham/Southernprint team, the spotlight is now firmly on St Ives and what it will do next.

In its statement confirming the contract loss St Ives said the IPC work accounted for about 3% of group revenues - so that's £11.6m or 7.5% of sales in its media products division, which also includes books.

That's not far off £1m of work a month, which is a chunk of business whichever way you look at it. St Ives also said it would not chase volumes "at sub economic prices", the clear implication being that Wyndeham has offered IPC a cheaper deal - my sources cite a figure of less than £10m. What margin on that, I wonder? As someone quipped this morning: "It must be like a Carry On film at Wyndeham - trousers dropped everywhere."

Much more seriously, Plymouth in particular now looks vulnerable, and that must mean some interesting conversations are underway over at Vogue House. There's a view that if Plymouth were to close then Condé Nast will be short of options here and could even end up printing on the continent at Roto Smeets or Mohn, which would be a blow.

I think we can be fairly sure that St Ives won't rush into any decisions, though. Will it close Plymouth? Maybe. Will it sell the whole web division? Possibly.

The grand irony in all this consolidation speculation is that Polestar and Walstead are seen as the most likely consolidators, while BGP and now St Ives Web are the hypothetical consolidatees.

But St Ives is the only one with any cash. The eventual outcome of all this could surprise us yet.