Industry profile
Is there a profitable future for small and
medium-sized printers?
Here’s how The Paper Express Shoppe is making sure the answer remains “Yes”
There’s no question that the print industry has changed in
recent years, and printing customer demands are still
changing. Tighter print marketing budgets, a push towards
paperless billing and paperless transactions, and the inces-
sant need for personalized print material to compete with
digital marketing, are all driving the print customer to demand
lower costs and, ironically, shorter runs. The days of jobs in
millions or even the hundreds of thousands of impressions
are likely over for all but a few printers. At the same time,
operating costs are increasing and paper costs have clearly
been on an upward trend since 2011, with two price increases
announced by most domestic and international mills in 2018
so far, with potentially another price increase to come. Overall,
these demands from the consumer and operating challenges
have driven the printing industry to consolidate significant
volume with larger printers, in addition to the emergence of
prominent trade printers.
So will this spell the end for profitable small- and me