The Lowdown

Last year, print professionals continued to navigate the rocky path of an economic recession. Nevertheless, overall sales figures were up from 2008. Were manufacturers able to hold on to their modest success? The answer is not so simple.

Total annual sales figures for the top 100 manufacturers took a dip from last year's $3.15 billion, coming in at $2.71 billion for the last fiscal year completed. A lower participation rate offers one explanation for this. Compared to last year, fewer manufacturers were willing to disclose annual sales figures. Though they did not offer a reason for their lack of participation, it is fair to assume they were hesitant to reveal any recessionary shortcomings in sales.

In terms of employment, more than half of the participants were forced to lay off employees in 2009. But on a positive note, most did not anticipate this course of action for the upcoming business year.

A glimmer of hope could be found in some of the individual product sectors. For instance, commercial print sales were up at $391.7 million (2009: $339.2 million); plastic products/cards reached $148.4 million (2009: $113.6 million); and promotional products soared to $313.6 million (2009: $105.1 million).

Unfortunately, the remainder of the individual product sectors did not see the same fate. Printed forms still put forth the highest showing at $683.6 million. However, this is a dramatic tumble from last year's sales of $901.2 million. Direct mail and envelopes followed printed forms' lead. Direct mail averaged $71.4 million (2009: $108.7 million), while envelopes comprised $190.1 million of sales (2009: $327.7 million).

The "other" category kept on its downward spiral with $136.3 million (2009: $472.5 million). Common responses for this sector were security paper, point purchasing rolls, engineering rolls, laser cut sheets, stamps, signage, ribbons/ink, stationery, index divider tabs, lottery roll tickets, p.o.p. printing, CDs and DVDs, checks, installation services, digital/offset book printing and decals. It is important to note that some of these entries may further skew the "other" category because the decision to consider cut sheets or checks as something miscellaneous instead of a form product, for example, boils down to the opinion of the manufacturer.

There were product categories that took a less noticeable hit. Labels and tags took second place overall, but resulted at $456.9 million (2009: $585.5 million); digital print revealed $81.2 million (2009: $90.1 million); and e-commerce came in at $25.2 million (2009: $37.2 million).

While this year's findings may seem less than encouraging, remember, this is only a small sampling of manufacturers and does not represent the industry as a whole. And while the top 100 suppliers opted to release their annual sales figures, a significant amount chose not to disclose how these numbers are broken down, thus explaining the discrepancy between last year's findings.

The Print Professional staff remains optimistic for next year. Even though the job market is still in limbo, the recession has been declared over, with the recovery officially beginning in June 2009, according to an announcement from the official arbiter of economic turning points. And new technology presents vast opportunities for those willing to embrace change. Therefore, isn't the next logical step to go up?

We congratulate each and every company who gave us the lowdown on their latest fiscal year and wish them the best of luck in 2011.

Stay tuned for the November issue where we see what the distributors have been up to over the last year.

(*Factors to consider when interpreting sales figures are ongoing industry consolidations and responses reporting idiosyncrasies.)