By Dr. Ronnie H. Davis, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, and Tai McNaughton, Economist, Printing Industries of America Even companies with in-house printing capabilities rely heavily on commercial printers for their business printing needs. Why? A recent survey of 400-plus marketing and business executives jointly conducted by Printing Industries of America and FedEx Office revealed the answer. The survey respondents were managing marketing activities at medium and large companies across different industrial sectors. According to the survey respondents, there are several important reasons to use commercial printers—nine specific reasons listed in the survey were cited by over 7 out of 10 respondents. Product quality was given as the number one reason to rely on a commercial printer, followed by volume considerations, cost issues, color consistency, and color accuracy. A key takeaway is that customers recognize the array of advantages that commercial printers provide compared to their own in-house capabilities. The survey delved further into the quality and color complexities inherent in print jobs. According to the customers surveyed, commercial printers outperform in-house printers in meeting these challenges. Overall, respondents confirmed that there were lower instances of content being displayed incorrectly, color consistency problems, color accuracy problems, and product quality challenges when using a commercial printer over using an in-house printer. The most significant advantage for commercial printers over in-house shops was in product quality and color accuracy. Which of these Challenges Has Your Company Faced in the Last 12 Months? Customers also expressed the belief that commercial printers are better at addressing the various challenges of processing print projects, such as budgeting, time management, and communications issues. This is particularly true for completing jobs on budget. The only print process challenge in which in-house print shops outperform commercial printers is communicating the requirements for the job, and the difference was small. The findings, contained in an eight-page Flash Report, show a competitive advantage for commercial printers compared to customers’ in-house print capabilities. PIA Member companies can read the full...

By Dr. Ronnie H. Davis, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, and Tai McNaughton, Economist, Printing Industries of America Even companies with in-house printing capabilities rely heavily on commercial printers for their business printing needs. Why? A recent survey of 400-plus marketing and business executives jointly conducted by Printing Industries of America and FedEx Office revealed the answer. The survey respondents were managing marketing activities at medium and large companies across different industrial sectors. According to the survey respondents, there are several important reasons to use commercial printers—nine specific reasons listed in the survey were cited by over 7 out of 10 respondents. Product quality was given as the number one reason to rely on a commercial printer, followed by volume considerations, cost issues, color consistency, and color accuracy. A key takeaway is that customers recognize the array of advantages that commercial printers provide compared to their own in-house capabilities. The survey delved further into the quality and color complexities inherent in print jobs. According to the customers surveyed, commercial printers outperform in-house printers in meeting these challenges. Overall, respondents confirmed that there were lower instances of content being displayed incorrectly, color consistency problems, color accuracy problems, and product quality challenges when using a commercial printer over using an in-house printer. The most significant advantage for commercial printers over in-house shops was in product quality and color accuracy. Which of these Challenges Has Your Company Faced in the Last 12 Months? Customers also expressed the belief that commercial printers are better at addressing the various challenges of processing print projects, such as budgeting, time management, and communications issues. This is particularly true for completing jobs on budget. The only print process challenge in which in-house print shops outperform commercial printers is communicating the requirements for the job, and the difference was small. The findings, contained in an eight-page Flash Report, show a competitive advantage for commercial printers compared to customers’ in-house print capabilities. PIA Member companies can read the full...

Secrets aren’t any fun. When you’re left in the dark about what other companies in your industry are up to, growing your business can be difficult. That’s why benchmarking—especially financial benchmarking—is so important. As Arthur Rothberg from CFO Edge explains, “Benchmarking is one of the most effective things businesses can do to improve their operations and boost profitability and productivity.” Essentially, you need to know where your business stands now in order to move forward later. Financial benchmarking tools help you determine the overall health of your business. They are a resource for finding strengths and weakness in your strategies—then they help you patch up sections that need the most work. Benchmarking tools also offer a great way to motivate your employees and push them to the next level. When you lay out numbers, steps, and goals so everyone can see, it gives your team a concrete message that everyone can understand. Although sifting through the abundance of information could seem daunting to some, learning how to efficiently benchmark your company (and using the information to improve your business) is fairly simple. We suggest trying out these three steps for a powerful financial benchmarking experience. 1.       Find the tool that works best for your company. Many financial benchmarking tools exist, but you may find that not all of them help you with your goals. For example, the U.S. Census lists many statistics for the printing industry. However, the wealth of information may prove too broad for your needs. The Printing Industries of America Ratios Report includes 16 volumes, each segmented to a separate part of the printing industry. Therefore, if you’re an advertising printer or if you just want information on product specialties, you can find financial stats based on those parameters.  2.       Decide which areas need your attention. After reviewing all of the reports, it sounds tempting to jump into making improvements. But as the leader of the operation, you should give careful consideration into which areas of your business needs addressed first. “Do not attempt to tackle everything en masse,” says Scott Slater of Charles Schwab Advisor Services. “The key to a successful action plan is to focus on just one or two initiatives that the data indicates will generate the biggest return on your investment of time and resources.” 3.       Develop concrete goals for improvement. Again, before rushing into any concrete plans, sit down with your team and discuss your needs. Develop measurable short- and long-term goals for success. Reviewing progress over time is much more manageable than trying to—for instance—“double our profits.” What would you see as success in a month’s time? A quarter’s time? A year’s time? When you lay these items out for...

Secrets aren’t any fun. When you’re left in the dark about what other companies in your industry are up to, growing your business can be difficult. That’s why benchmarking—especially financial benchmarking—is so important. As Arthur Rothberg from CFO Edge explains, “Benchmarking is one of the most effective things businesses can do to improve their operations and boost profitability and productivity.” Essentially, you need to know where your business stands now in order to move forward later. Financial benchmarking tools help you determine the overall health of your business. They are a resource for finding strengths and weakness in your strategies—then they help you patch up sections that need the most work. Benchmarking tools also offer a great way to motivate your employees and push them to the next level. When you lay out numbers, steps, and goals so everyone can see, it gives your team a concrete message that everyone can understand. Although sifting through the abundance of information could seem daunting to some, learning how to efficiently benchmark your company (and using the information to improve your business) is fairly simple. We suggest trying out these three steps for a powerful financial benchmarking experience. 1.       Find the tool that works best for your company. Many financial benchmarking tools exist, but you may find that not all of them help you with your goals. For example, the U.S. Census lists many statistics for the printing industry. However, the wealth of information may prove too broad for your needs. The Printing Industries of America Ratios Report includes 16 volumes, each segmented to a separate part of the printing industry. Therefore, if you’re an advertising printer or if you just want information on product specialties, you can find financial stats based on those parameters.  2.       Decide which areas need your attention. After reviewing all of the reports, it sounds tempting to jump into making improvements. But as the leader of the operation, you should give careful consideration into which areas of your business needs addressed first. “Do not attempt to tackle everything en masse,” says Scott Slater of Charles Schwab Advisor Services. “The key to a successful action plan is to focus on just one or two initiatives that the data indicates will generate the biggest return on your investment of time and resources.” 3.       Develop concrete goals for improvement. Again, before rushing into any concrete plans, sit down with your team and discuss your needs. Develop measurable short- and long-term goals for success. Reviewing progress over time is much more manageable than trying to—for instance—“double our profits.” What would you see as success in a month’s time? A quarter’s time? A year’s time? When you lay these items out for...

Profit leaders—printers in the top 25% of profitability—saw profits increase to 10.3% in 2013 and the forecast looks like increasing profits into 2016, based on the 2014-15 Ratios results. Now is the time to make a decision—do you invest those extra profits into growth areas, or do you save for a rainy day? Here Ed Gleeson, Director, Center for Economics and Market Research and Stu Margolis, Partner, Margolis Partners, give a plain-English explanation of the Key Printing Industry Ratios you need to be aware of—to keep your business strong both in good times and in bad. Increasing profits enable companies to grow by generating capital that can be invested into additional productive capacity, hiring additional workers, and moving into new facilities.  Profits can also be retained as a buffer for difficult times, and/or reward shareholders with dividends. Profits play an important role in the success in the economy and our industry. John E. Silvia, Chief Economist, Wells Fargo Securities states this regarding profits, “When viewed from the context of the business cycle, profits are a residual, or a buffer to fluctuations in the economy. Relative to real factors such as economic growth or employment, as well as inflation, wages or interest rates, profits are far more variable. As a buffer, profits fluctuate significantly over the cycle. Over time, however, profit growth tends to remain stable, indicating that the pace of profit growth is consistent with the pace of economic growth and the offsetting effects of changes in input costs and sales revenues.” At the current phase in the business cycle, printing industry profits are increasing along with capacity utilization. Profits declined slightly in 2013 compared to 2012, but according to recent readings from various sources printing industry profits are trending upwards in 2014. This increase in profitability along with signs of increasing shipments and capacity utilization make it a good time to review our top Seven Key Printing Industry Ratios. Preparing for the future First, though, let’s take a closer look at why these ratios are important. In good times (relative to the past few years) it’s important to ensure everything is in line to prepare for the eventual cyclical downturn (recession). We currently forecast economic growth to continue into 2015 and 2016, but forecasts past a two-year horizon contain many assumptions and increased variability. In other words there are too many unknowns for us to accurately forecast out past the two year mark. To view the cyclical nature of profits we plot Printing Industry Profitability vs. changes in Real Gross Domestic Product in Figure 1. When comparing printing industry profitability to changes in Real GDP we use profits as a percent of value added instead of profits as a...

Profit leaders—printers in the top 25% of profitability—saw profits increase to 10.3% in 2013 and the forecast looks like increasing profits into 2016, based on the 2014-15 Ratios results. Now is the time to make a decision—do you invest those extra profits into growth areas, or do you save for a rainy day? Here Ed Gleeson, Director, Center for Economics and Market Research and Stu Margolis, Partner, Margolis Partners, give a plain-English explanation of the Key Printing Industry Ratios you need to be aware of—to keep your business strong both in good times and in bad. Increasing profits enable companies to grow by generating capital that can be invested into additional productive capacity, hiring additional workers, and moving into new facilities.  Profits can also be retained as a buffer for difficult times, and/or reward shareholders with dividends. Profits play an important role in the success in the economy and our industry. John E. Silvia, Chief Economist, Wells Fargo Securities states this regarding profits, “When viewed from the context of the business cycle, profits are a residual, or a buffer to fluctuations in the economy. Relative to real factors such as economic growth or employment, as well as inflation, wages or interest rates, profits are far more variable. As a buffer, profits fluctuate significantly over the cycle. Over time, however, profit growth tends to remain stable, indicating that the pace of profit growth is consistent with the pace of economic growth and the offsetting effects of changes in input costs and sales revenues.” At the current phase in the business cycle, printing industry profits are increasing along with capacity utilization. Profits declined slightly in 2013 compared to 2012, but according to recent readings from various sources printing industry profits are trending upwards in 2014. This increase in profitability along with signs of increasing shipments and capacity utilization make it a good time to review our top Seven Key Printing Industry Ratios. Preparing for the future First, though, let’s take a closer look at why these ratios are important. In good times (relative to the past few years) it’s important to ensure everything is in line to prepare for the eventual cyclical downturn (recession). We currently forecast economic growth to continue into 2015 and 2016, but forecasts past a two-year horizon contain many assumptions and increased variability. In other words there are too many unknowns for us to accurately forecast out past the two year mark. To view the cyclical nature of profits we plot Printing Industry Profitability vs. changes in Real Gross Domestic Product in Figure 1. When comparing printing industry profitability to changes in Real GDP we use profits as a percent of value added instead of profits as a...