DeWese--Surprising Facts in an Industry Study

On the other hand, printing is becoming more and more productive, thanks to great people and automation through our conversion to digital throughput. We produced more printing to the tune of 17.84 percent for the years 1996 through 1999 with 5 percent fewer companies. Some of those 5 percent were acquired in the printing industry consolidation wave of 1996-1998; others simply shut down when the owners decided to retire, and a few went bankrupt and closed. Meanwhile, however, "all commercial printing" alone grew from sales of $88.1 billion in 1996 to $102.7 billion in 1999.