CATALOG MARKET OUTLOOK --Sales on Back Order

Going forward, Zuccarini says the successful printers will be the ones that most proactively anticipate clients' needs—offering integrated solutions in the right format at the right time.

Spencer Press in Wells, ME, looked to its own customer base in order to get a better sense of business conditions, reports Stephen Spenlinhauer, president. "After reviewing our top 20 mail order customers, we found that 12 are reporting sales up, six say business is flat compared to 2001 and two are down," he reveals. The prevailing trend among those reporting sales growth is to increase their quantity of mailings and not page counts, the company exec adds.