Complete Story
03/05/2024
All 2023 Printing Industry Performance Insights Study Results
October 2023 Printing Industry Performance
and Insights Reports
At Graphic Media Alliance, our commitment to providing our members with the latest in industry trends and business outlook is unwavering. The recent Printing Industry Performance & Insights survey across the APAN network delivered three exceptional reports. From recruitment strategies to revenue trends and industry impacts like inflation, these reports offer invaluable insights, affirming both the industry's outlook and our alignment with members' evolving needs. Thank you to all who participated.
Branding Your Firm as a Good Place to Work: Employer Branding
Recruiting and hiring is a challenge for printing industry firms. However, we found that some printing firm leaders are satisfied with their hiring and recruiting. From our October 2023 “Printing Industry Performance & Insights” study, it appears effective recruiting and hiring is connected to two key concepts: an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and Employer Branding. We explain EVP and Employer Branding and provide a model illustrating our findings. This report closes with survey participants' responses to open-ended questions about their employer branding approaches.
The Printing Industry: A Big Picture of Revenue Trends, Business Outlook, Other Knowledge, and Actionable Thoughts
In this report, we help printing company leaders see the big picture of our industry from the October 2023 “Printing Industry Performance & Insights” study, which provides insights related to revenue, business outlook, customers purchasing more or less printed products, and customer turnover. The study includes thoughts on how to address this environment proactively. As comparison tools, we provide averages for employees per $1mm in revenue and cash reserve information from across our industry.
The Printing Industry: A Big Picture of Inflation, Paper Supply, and Postal Mail Rates, with Actionable Thoughts
Factors from outside our industry can affect firm performance. In strategic planning, stepping back and seeing the external environment from a big-picture view is essential. In this report from our October 2023 “Printing Industry Performance & Insights” study, we provide insights as to how our industry is affected by external factors, such as inflation, paper supply, and postal mail rates. The study concludes with printing firm leaders’ thoughts about a potential recession. Actionable thoughts are shared throughout our report.
2023 Financial Benchmarks, Ratios, and Actionable Thoughts
You will find industry financial benchmarks and ratios helpful in assessing your firm’s performance. Our data can open your eyes to a path for improving your firm’s performance. That’s why we are committed to annually providing regional printing association members with financial benchmarking and ratio knowledge.
Although comparing your firm’s financial numbers to the data below may point to areas you need to sharpen, this assessment is about more than “budgeting.” From the financial data we pulled from the March 2023 PIPI survey, you may discover areas in your firm that need more or less resources applied. This reflects one strategic benefit of financial benchmarking and ratio analysis. Strategic planning includes deciding in what areas we need to invest more and in what areas we need to invest less; this is planning as opposed to reactive resource allocation – planning how much we need to spend where. With our benchmarks and ratios, we provide actionable thoughts you might consider.
We sought to provide this knowledge for specific industry segments, such as different types of commercial printing companies, label companies, and others. We also sought to provide averages for all firms and high performers in printing industry segments. We do provide some findings categorized in that manner. However, as our survey responses are limited, we do not offer the scope of industry segments we desire, nor do we provide numbers for high performers in all industry segments. However, our report includes helpful numbers.
Hopefully, this report will motivate more survey participation when we conduct the PIPI-Financial Benchmarking study again next spring.
Our report contains four sections:
- Income statement and cost categories as a percentage of revenue
- Balance sheets and related ratios
- Cash management indicators
- Summary with some key takeaways
The report includes income statements and cost categories as a percentage of revenue, balance sheets and related ratios, and cash management indicators. We had enough surveys to generate numbers for high performers and a few industry segments. In addition to the financial numbers, we provide actionable thoughts for you and your management team.
Thanks to all who participated in the survey. We hope this report prompts interest in participating in next year’s survey.
