Printers are innovating their way out of recession – FESPA - Printwear & Promotion – garment decoration and promotional clothing/merchandise news & information

Printers are innovating their way out of recession – FESPA

Published: 30 March, 2010

FESPA’s second Economy Survey shows that the wide format printing community is moving on from the defensive survival tactics of 2009, using innovative and proactive sales and operational strategies to improve its business fortunes moving into 2010.

Some 70.2% of respondents had used new products or processes in their operations to help them through the economic downturn, with 61.5% adding products to their portfolio, and 60.6% entering new markets. The second Economy Survey was conducted by FESPA in the fourth quarter of 2009, in partnership with global research experts InfoTrends. It shows that the community’s outlook entering 2010 is broadly optimistic. More than a fifth of the respondents questioned at the end of 2009 thought the market was already recovering, and more than half expect recovery to previous levels by the end of 2010.

Conversely, the Survey clearly summarises the impact of the downturn in the wide format market. Some 93.1% of the 217 respondents agree that there has been an economic downturn in the industry, with 56.4% viewing 2009 as the worst year they have ever seen. The mean level of business decline reported is 15%; however, the community is polarised, with 21.1% experiencing no loss in business activity and another 20.7% showing a decline of 25% or more. Manufacturers and resellers report the same average decline as print service providers (PSPs), underscoring the industry’s tightly connected supply chain.

The competitive landscape is in a state of flux, with 65.6% of those surveyed reporting that competitors had consolidated or gone out of business, 43.1% indicating that competitors are moving into other markets or offering new services, 33% experiencing new competition from other segments of the printing industry, and 22% seeing customers take some wide format work in house.

Price pressure is also unrelenting, with 60.6% being price compared more frequently by new and existing customers.

Along with service and market expansion and new sales strategies, the survey points to a gradual refocus on developing and retaining ‘human capital’.

Around 23% of respondents have expanded their sales force, and talent retention would seem to be a priority in anticipation of an eventual upturn.