Business Management - Industry Trends

PRINT 09 offered an array of wide-format printing systems and highlighted a number of industry trends that could present opportunities for commercial printers, including sustainability and high-volume POP production.

The wide format graphics market generated total manufacturer revenues at the retail level for hardware, media, and ink of $8.7 billion in 2008 and is expected to generate manufacturer revenues of $9.3 billion in 2013, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of one percent.

Wide-format inkjet opens up the doors to opportunity. In today's business climate, it's more important than ever to become an indispensable provider of value-added products and services to solidify the customer base.

After six straight quarters of increases, paper prices fell during the first half of 2009. And now at the start of the third quarter, it appears that prices have leveled off.

With paper consumption on a downward slope, mills face big trouble. What can you expect in the short- and long-term future?

Direct mail survery finds response rates vary based on the day of the week they are received and the size of the packet. Differences also found for Consumer vs. Financial mailings.

According to the NAPL Printing Economic Research Center (PERC), while the printing industry has been hit hard by the economic downturn, it is by no means alone. Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, & Orders report, printing was one of ten major manufacturing groups in which shipments fell in 2008.

Squarely impacted by the “triple assault” of the recession, rising postage rates and growing marketer preference for low-cost digital communications, total U.S. direct mail spending declined sharply in 2008—falling 3.0 percent—and was accompanied by an even more significant cutback in mail volume, according to a white paper released today by Winterberry Group, a leading strategic consulting firm serving the marketing industry.

A recent PRIMIR study entitled “Mega Printers' Impact on the North American Print Market” is now available. Merger and acquisition activity among printers in the graphic communications industry has resulted in a new breed of printer – the "mega printer.” These “mega printers” appear to do business differently than their smaller brethren on many different levels.

Printing Impressions' Across the Nation Commercial Printer News for January 2009