drd 2012-05-06 - Drupa Report Daily

16 drupa International
May 6, 2012
2012: The year of celebration for UK print?
Wird 2012 ein Festjahr für das britische Druckgewerbe?
The UK in June celebrates the 60th year anniversary coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, with with an additional public holiday
Großbritannien feiert im Juni das 60-jährige Krönungsjubiläum von Königin Elizabeth II. unter anderem mit einem zusätzlichen gesetzlichen Feiertag.
The sparkle of diamonds
and the gleam of gold
medals – for many people
in the UK, 2012 will be
a year of extended
celebrations and immense
national pride.
By Jo Francis
Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond
Jubilee will be celebrated in June
with an additional public holiday
and events have been taking place
around the country to mark her 60
years on the throne. Then, at the
end of July the London 2012
Olympics will begin. Deliberate
efforts are being made to spread
the benefits of both events across
the nation, but for London and the
south-east in particular 2012 is set
to be a huge year.
What remains to be seen is
whether these high-profile happenings
will be a boost, a burden,
or a damp squib for business
owners. For many in the printing
industry the jury is still out.
An additional public holiday
has been granted to mark the
Queen’s Jubilee, and when this
happened for the Royal Wedding
of her grandson Prince William in
2011 the overwhelming response
from printers was negative – the
extended holiday resulted in a
slowdown in orders for many
companies, who also had to bear
the cost of giving employees an
extra day off.
And with the world’s greatest
sporting event just a couple of
months away, there is ongoing
scrutiny about whether UK businesses
are benefiting sufficiently
from the huge contracts being
awarded as part of the mammoth
£9.3bn Olympics budget.
Wider economy
Away from these two major upcoming
events, views about the
state of the wider economy remain
mixed. Research from the
British Printing Industries Federation
(BPIF) published in January
pointed to a slow start to
2012 for many printing companies.
Margins continue to come
under pressure and among
printers’ major business worries,
“competitors pricing below
cost” is the issue most frequently
cited.
Due to the large number of
printing company failures during
the financial crisis that unfolded
after drupa 2008, the UK print industry
overall has reduced to some
10,100 companies, employing approximately
133,000 people, according
to latest BPIF estimates.
More positively, BPIF chief executive
Kathy Woodward believes the
period of drastic contraction is
over, and those firms that have
weathered the financial storm are
now able to look at growing their
businesses.
“The number of companies
failing has slowed. I think that is
essentially behind us,” she says.
“The conversations we are having
with members have stopped focusing
on redundancies and costcutting,
they are now more about
performance management and
operational excellence.”
She points to continuing challenges
for those companies engaged
in commodity print while
lacking concrete differentiators.
“We are working with a huge
number of companies, and those
just sitting on a commodity offering
are subject to all the market
pressures. Those who are adding
value are doing all right.
“Even in commodity printing
the guys who have engineered it to
have the right product for their
presses are doing well. It’s those
who are trying to be all things to all
men, with all the associated sales
and customer service team costs,
who have real problems,” Woodward
adds. “Widen up the supply
and into marketing services, or
2012, a year of ongoing celebrations and enormous national pride
2012, ein Jahr mit anhaltenden Feierlichkeiten und enormem Nationalstolz
something specifically addedvalue
that serves your customers,
then you’re okay.”
There are indeed signs that a
new breed of printing company is
emerging from the downturn.
Some of these companies are
ultra-innovative, some are ultraefficient,
some have broadened
their offering into beyond print
services, and some are ultra-focused
on a narrow range of print
products.
21st century business
It’s clear there is no one-size-fitsall
when it comes to the successful
21 st century printing business, and
the most recent PrintWeek Top
500 survey of the largest print-related
companies throws up some
interesting statistics about an
evolving industry.
Analysis of the average results
for all of the companies surveyed
– stretching from DS Smith’s print
and packaging operation in the
number one spot with sales of
£917m, through to the high street
printer in 500 th spot with sales of
£724,000 – shows that on average
sales and profit margins improved,
an encouraging sign that a
strengthened and more resilient
industry has come through the
economic battering of the past
three years.
While the average operating
profit margin remains low at just
2.8%, deeper analysis of the results
shows that double-digit mar-