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Top Ten Printing in North America
Print Action, Mar 2005
Estimates by C. Barnes & Co. mark the Canadian printing industry as making US$13 billion in sales through the year 2004, which of course is overshadowed by the United States printing market estimates of approximately US$170 billion. While many Canadian companies export print south of the border, Barnes notes that Canada is the largest purchaser of U.S. printed materials, accounting for approximately 40 to 45 per cent of the U.S. export total.
Based in Bath, Maine, C. Barnes & Co. is a market research firm specializing in the printing & graphic arts industry. The firm recently published a 217-page report, called 2005 Markets in Print, which provides a very detailed sales breakdown of where printing companies sit in the North American marketplace. Some of these market snapshots are shown below, as Print Action was given permission to publish the top ten printers in specific categories (according to C. Barnes & Co.).
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The report from Barnes also points to some telling statistics about the direction of print. For example, 69.6 per cent of survey participants in 2004 have non-print operations (NPOs), dropping from 78.7 per cent in 2003. Of these participants with nonprint operations in 2004, an average of 13.2 per cent of their sales are from NPOs (19.8 per cent in 2003). Barnes also found that fewer large printing companies tend to have NPOs than do smaller companies - 75 per cent of firms making less than US$10 million have NPOs.
The top non-print operations from participants included fulfillment in the number-one spot at 42.6 per cent, while graphic design was found in 17.0 per cent of firms, warehousing in 4.3 per cent and mailing in 4.3 per cent. More than half of the NPOs respondents stated they increased their sales over the previous year, which is approximately the same sales situation with all printers in the research. Nearly every printer surveyed expected 2005 to be a good year for printing, as 98 per cent foresaw a 2005 increase in their print sales over 2004.
Barnes' research found the top business problems remain to be, in order, competitive pricing, increasing sales, labour and benefits costs, skilled labour and cost of materials and technology.
Copyright Youngblood Communications Co., Ltd. Mar 2005
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