Quick Printing is the resource for the Commercial printing, visual and graphic arts industries. Since 1977, Quick Printing has focused on improving efficiency and increasing sales and profits in the print shop. Industry experts share their ideas and
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12 Quick Printing | January 2015 MyPRINTResource.com What's the buzz? We're back (in the black). Our business is looking up, getting better, research and revenues show. But growth is slow and far from robust. By Mark Vruno T he buzz coming out of GRAPH EXPO three months ago was extremely optimistic for the print medium and graphic communications feld. Not even the trav- el nightmares of getting into Chicago airports could dampen the positive vibes or the facts: that printers are spending money and investing in new equipment. That news is good, of course, for the entire industry. The annual show saw brisk traffc and show-foor excitement as well as sales, according to the October 1 edition of the Offcial Show Daily publication, "provid- ing ample evidence that the industry has turned a cor- ner and [is] headed toward a rebound. The marketplace is improving, and companies in the industry are looking toward new technologies to exploit new opportunities and capture new business," the summary continued. MyPRINTResource.com/11707350 Exhibitors shared their enthusiasm. "We're very pleased with the amount of traffc we've had," said Dennis Amorosano, VP of marketing for Canon's Busi- ness Imaging Solutions Group. "There's a nice buzz in the industry, and Canon is very optimistic about the state of the marketplace. There is a lot of customer ex- citement around inkjet and the other technologies. We couldn't be more pleased. We're turning a corner." Amorasano was not alone in his assessment: "We have turned a corner as an industry," concurred Robert Ross, CEO of Xante. Their optimism is well founded. Four Quarters of Growth As NAPL chief economist Andy Paparozzi put it in a mid-November webinar, the US printing industry is "fnal- ly growing again, up 2.2 percent in 2014 to around $80.4 State of the $80+ Billion Printing Industry in 2015 billion." (Read more in "Association Insights" on page 26.) For this year, sales are expected to grow again, between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent, according to the National Association for Printing Leadership, totaling to $82 billion to $83.5 billion. Indeed, the momentum that began in the fourth quarter of 2013 has continued: growth. "We hav- en't had four consecutive quarters of growth since 2007," Paparozzi pointed out. "It's progress." Paparozzi noted that, since 2011, the print industry is up by approximately 3.2 percent. However, he added with caution, "We're still down 18.8 percent since 'Great Recession' levels." Since going into what he called "abso- lute free-fall mode" in 2008-09, the pricing pressure has been constant on the print frms that have weathered the storm and survived. Despite the recent growth trend, "the margins for error are still paper thin," the econo- mist warned. "The end of the recession does not mean business is robust. But it is recovering, nonetheless …. Conditions are better but [are] far from 'take-off' speed." One owner spoke for perhaps the whole industry when he was quoted in NAPL's 12th "State of the Industry" report, released in late December and spon- sored by Canon and KBA: "We're doing better than a year ago, but we're still not comfortable," he shared anonymously. Paparozzi revealed that of the 328 com- panies that participated in the study, sales were up an average of 17 percent within the top 20 percent of the survey group, while the bottom ffth saw increases av- "The margins for error are still paper thin," Paparozzi warned. "The end of the recession does not mean business is robust. But it is recovering, nonetheless.