COVID-19 Print Business Indicators Research Highlights the Pandemic’s Effect on First Half Sales for the Commercial Printing Segment

To help printing companies navigate through the current crisis to the recovery on the other side, NAPCO Research and the PRINTING United Alliance have launched COVID-19 Print Business Indicators Research. This is the third in a series of reports that examines the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the printing industry, how printers are responding to the crisis, and how they can create a path forward. This survey tracks key indicators across a cross section of printing companies, including commercial printers, graphic and sign producers, apparel decorators, functional printers, and package printers/converters. Click here to download an Executive Summary of the report. 

Printing United Alliance members can download the full report here.
And PIA members here.

This article focuses on key findings from commercial printers participating in the third survey. Our fourth survey will soon be in the field and open for any printers to participate. Please stay vigilant for the link to take the 3-5 minute survey

Comparison of 2019 and 2020 First Half Sales Highlight the Brutal Effects of COVID on the Commercial Printing Segment

Participants in the most recent COVID-19 Print Indicators Research were asked to provide their first half sales for both 2019 and 2020.  This provided insight into how much printers have been hurt by virus-related issues.  Nearly 80% of companies (79.1%) indicated that sales were lower in the first half of 2020 than in 2019.  These firms reported an average sales decline of 27.3%.  While the vast majority of firms struggles, 20% of commercial printers were able to increase their sales year-over-year.  Those who were fortunate enough to see a rise in sales reported an average increase of 34.9%. These firms were likely able to pivot to COVID-Related products or they likely served markets that were boosted by the pandemic such as healthcare, home entertainment, home education, and food packing.  Moving forward, printers must move strategically to capture opportunities while remaining vigilant as COVID-related opportunities will eventually dry up.

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Printers Are Much Less Pessimistic About the Future

For each of the previous survey periods for this research, printers were asked about their confidence moving forward.  Firms are asked whether they anticipate business to increase, decrease or stay the same over the next month.  With so much uncertainty, firms are also able to indicate that they are not sure.  While the percentage of respondents indicating improvement over the next month has steadied after its large rise between survey periods one and two, the number of firms indicating a decrease is much more important.  This number continues to fall as the percentage of pessimistic printers is now single digits at 7.4%.  Just under a third of printers expect things to remain pretty consistent while 13.9% are still unsure what the next month holds.

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The General and Panel COVID-19 Print Business Indicators Report

The full version of the report digs deeper into all of the data mentioned above plus much more!

The report includes sections on:

• Previous 30 days sales numbers
• 2019 vs. 2020 first half sales for the industry and segments
• Index Data including trends for sales, production, employment, prices, profitability, quote activity, work-on-hand, payroll production hours and confidence
• Revenues lost from client closures
• COVID-Related sales figures
• Total employment change since the beginning of 2020
• Market shifts following COVID
• How companies are planning beyond COVID-19
• The outlook of the economy in 2020 and into 2021
• Must-dos for printers and how to execute (Panel Edition)
• Merger and Acquisition insight (Panel Edition)

Participate in the COVID-19 Print Business Indicators Research

In today’s unprecedent business environment, making decisions based on facts has never been more important. In the weeks and months ahead, reliable industry business indicators will be essential for monitoring what’s happening in all printing industry segments. The COVID-19 Print Business Indicators Research is an essential resource for monitoring industry conditions and the NAPCO and PRINTING United Alliance research teams invite you to join our business panel and contribute to the research on an ongoing basis. Companies that join the panel will receive an exclusive version of the report that includes additional data and analysis. To join the Covid-19 research panel, please click here.

ABOUT NAPCO RESEARCH

The combined NAPCO and PRINTING United Alliance research teams develop research and economic models that solve customer business problems.  Market research is valuable for making strategic business decisions, solving challenges, and pursuing opportunities and the NAPCO Media research teams survey, analyze, and monitor critical trends related to marketing, printing, packaging, non-profit organizations, promotional products, and retailing. To learn more about how the team can leverage its research and industry subject matter experts to support your organizations needs contact NAPCO’s Vice President of Research, Nathan Safran, at nsafran@napco.com.