Boston Print Buyers - Margie's Print Tips, What Lies Ahead for the US Print Market?

Boston Print Buyers - Margie's Print Tips What Lies Ahead for the US Print Market?
Part 1:

Davis and Ed Gleeson (an economic and market research analyst for PIA/GATF) authored a market overview report entitled, "Navigating Print Markets in 2007-2008."* This report was the basis of Davis' recent presentation.

"Halt, Who Grows There

The most popular form of printing - ink-on-paper - is experiencing slow growth, which will continue. Digital printing is experiencing strong growth. Davis predicts it will grow at twice the rate of ink-on-paper.

Go back and read this last sentence again. Are any of you surprised? You shouldn't be. In all of the surveys I've conducted, digital color printing is the one type of printing that every print buyer purchases.

The print industry tracks the US economy, so if our economy enters a period of slow growth, so will printing. A slowdown in the growth rate of both is expected over the next 12-24 months, and Davis advised printers to plan their businesses accordingly.

He then listed four different reasons for recovery in the industry:

1. Strong economic growth
2. Presidential elections
3. The rebound of advertising
4. Stable postage rates

Key Market Segments

Davis highlighted specific print market segments in terms of economic projections. The four top segments in terms of 2007 growth potential, according to PIA/GATF, are as follows:

1. Direct Marketing (1.5% - 2.5%)
2. Labels/Wrappers Printing (1.5% - 2%)
3. Packaging (1.5% - 2%)
4. Catalog Printing (1% - 1.5%)

General Commercial Printing, Periodicals/Magazines, and Book printing all weighed in at a projected 1% growth this year, while the last two categories show negative growth (Directories at 0% to -0.5% and Business Forms at -3% to -4%).

The US print industry loses about 1000 printing companies each year. From a high of 54,000 in 1994, we are now down to 40,000 US printing plants. Interestingly, the average plant size is growing, because the companies that cease operating tend to be the smaller ones. Today, said Davis, the average US print facility employs 27 people.

Davis predicts that the overall sales in printing for 2006 will be up 2.5%, as compared to the GDP growth of 3.3%."

This snippet from: http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/printtips/07-01-22.html
--

About Margie Dana had a career as a corporate print buyer. She was never a printer and never worked for a printer. However she "Parlez-Vous Printing" in plain English. Margie Dana is the founder of the Boston-area Print Buyers Club. Located in Newton, Ma, she can be found at http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/ and reached privately by email at mdana@bostonprintbuyers.com