Industry Capacity — Matching Marketplace Realities

BY JACK RICKARD

During uncertain economic times, prudent graphic arts companies formulate reasonable strategies to combat underutilization of production capacity. There are right and wrong ways to accomplish this goal.

In my opinion, fighting for market share by lowering prices is fraught with danger. The more thoughtful of the price discounters at least try to set prices such that each job contributes a reasonable amount to existing overhead. While there may be some merit to this line of reasoning, it is only applicable for the very shortest of time frames.