The industry’s “Profit Leaders” represent firms in the top 25% of profitability. So what’s their secret? What are they doing that the other 75% are not? They’re using Printing Industries of America’s Ratios reports to benchmark their business, learning where they can improve efficiency and productivity. And the result is higher profits. Here’s how you can do the same with the 2013–2014 Ratios. Ask Strategic Questions The new 2013–2014 Ratios, whichshows that printing industry profits are finally increasing,collates key market data to pinpoint strategic business areas to focus on. Profit leaders use the reports as an efficient way to benchmark and get a pulse on important areas of operations, like profitability and sales factors, cost drivers, and expenses. How can your company use Ratios to find areas for improvement? Take a look at your numbers and compare them to the industry average and profit leaders. Get a better and faster understanding of where they are and where they should be! Here are some examples of the right questions the Ratios helps identify to assess your operations: What are your factory and administrative expenses and how do they compare to your competitors? Does your percentage of payroll and materials expenses match industry averages? How do your sales per employee compare to profit leaders? Is your average employee wage competitive within the industry? (Get a peek at some of the latest Ratios results here!) See the Big Picture Profit leaders understand the financial position of their business within the market. The Ratios reports provide a compilation of in-depth financial data from hundreds of our industry’s profit leaders. This data is generated from a yearly industry-wide survey of more than 500 Printing Industries of America member and non-member printing firms conducted by our Economic and Market Research department. Each of the 16 volumes focuses on a specific industry segment, spanning every major industry sector. All this data amounts to a complete look at the industry—where we are, where we’re going, market trends, and much more. It provides management both a microscopic view of the top business priorities, and then expands that view to reveal how your company’s performance fits in with the profit leaders and the rest of the industry firms. Hot Off the Press! We’ve just released the 2013–2014 Ratios. Learn more about Printing Industries of America’s Ratios program and browse all 16 volumes available at...

The industry’s “Profit Leaders” represent firms in the top 25% of profitability. So what’s their secret? What are they doing that the other 75% are not? They’re using Printing Industries of America’s Ratios reports to benchmark their business, learning where they can improve efficiency and productivity. And the result is higher profits. Here’s how you can do the same with the 2013–2014 Ratios. Ask Strategic Questions The new 2013–2014 Ratios, whichshows that printing industry profits are finally increasing,collates key market data to pinpoint strategic business areas to focus on. Profit leaders use the reports as an efficient way to benchmark and get a pulse on important areas of operations, like profitability and sales factors, cost drivers, and expenses. How can your company use Ratios to find areas for improvement? Take a look at your numbers and compare them to the industry average and profit leaders. Get a better and faster understanding of where they are and where they should be! Here are some examples of the right questions the Ratios helps identify to assess your operations: What are your factory and administrative expenses and how do they compare to your competitors? Does your percentage of payroll and materials expenses match industry averages? How do your sales per employee compare to profit leaders? Is your average employee wage competitive within the industry? (Get a peek at some of the latest Ratios results here!) See the Big Picture Profit leaders understand the financial position of their business within the market. The Ratios reports provide a compilation of in-depth financial data from hundreds of our industry’s profit leaders. This data is generated from a yearly industry-wide survey of more than 500 Printing Industries of America member and non-member printing firms conducted by our Economic and Market Research department. Each of the 16 volumes focuses on a specific industry segment, spanning every major industry sector. All this data amounts to a complete look at the industry—where we are, where we’re going, market trends, and much more. It provides management both a microscopic view of the top business priorities, and then expands that view to reveal how your company’s performance fits in with the profit leaders and the rest of the industry firms. Hot Off the Press! We’ve just released the 2013–2014 Ratios. Learn more about Printing Industries of America’s Ratios program and browse all 16 volumes available at...

The industry’s “Profit Leaders” represent firms in the top 25% of profitability. So what’s their secret? What are they doing that the other 75% are not? They’re using Printing Industries of America’s Ratios reports to benchmark their business, learning where they can improve efficiency and productivity. And the result is higher profits. Here’s how you can do the same with the 2013–2014 Ratios. Ask Strategic Questions The new 2013–2014 Ratios, whichshows that printing industry profits are finally increasing,collates key market data to pinpoint strategic business areas to focus on. Profit leaders use the reports as an efficient way to benchmark and get a pulse on important areas of operations, like profitability and sales factors, cost drivers, and expenses. How can your company use Ratios to find areas for improvement? Take a look at your numbers and compare them to the industry average and profit leaders. Get a better and faster understanding of where they are and where they should be! Here are some examples of the right questions the Ratios helps identify to assess your operations: What are your factory and administrative expenses and how do they compare to your competitors? Does your percentage of payroll and materials expenses match industry averages? How do your sales per employee compare to profit leaders? Is your average employee wage competitive within the industry? (Get a peek at some of the latest Ratios results here!) See the Big Picture Profit leaders understand the financial position of their business within the market. The Ratios reports provide a compilation of in-depth financial data from hundreds of our industry’s profit leaders. This data is generated from a yearly industry-wide survey of more than 500 Printing Industries of America member and non-member printing firms conducted by our Economic and Market Research department. Each of the 16 volumes focuses on a specific industry segment, spanning every major industry sector. All this data amounts to a complete look at the industry—where we are, where we’re going, market trends, and much more. It provides management both a microscopic view of the top business priorities, and then expands that view to reveal how your company’s performance fits in with the profit leaders and the rest of the industry firms. Hot Off the Press! We’ve just released the 2013–2014 Ratios. Learn more about Printing Industries of America’s Ratios program and browse all 16 volumes available at...

In this four-part series, we’ll take a look at how each indicator from the Monthly Conditions Dashboard is affecting your business based on the survey results from the past 15 months. Charts are also provided to show the trends in an easy-to-read format, so you can benchmark your current market conditions with hundreds of other printers. In July, we shared some market insights based on data pulled from the Monthly Industry Conditions Dashboard. This market monitoring report from our Economic and Market Research department can be used to determine where the industry is trending in the short term, which can help you better forecast demand for the coming quarters. In Industry Trends Report: Part 1—Monthly Sales we learned about the wide swings and modestly rising sales printers are experiencing. Positive sales for 2013 are predicted in Industry Trends Report: Part 2—Sales Expectations. How do we get these results? Survey respondents provide information in five principle areas—1) Monthly Sales, 2) Sales Expectations, 3) Profits, and 4) Print and Paper Prices. Current sales and profits are compared to the previous month. Printing prices and paper prices are current month compared to 12 months earlier. Sales expectations are expectations for next month compared to the current month. Respondents are asked to report the directional change of each of the five key indicators (increasing, decreasing, or no change). We’ll compare print and paper prices in two weeks for Part 4 of the series and where you can expect them to be in 2013. The findings you will read are based on July 2013 calculations using a net diffusion index. A net diffusion index is an index where the percentage of respondents reporting an increase is subtracted from the percentage of respondents reporting a decrease. The net diffusion index provides a simple snapshot of printers’ market perceptions for each...

In this four-part series, we’ll take a look at how each indicator from the Monthly Conditions Dashboard is affecting your business based on the survey results from the past 15 months. Charts are also provided to show the trends in an easy-to-read format, so you can benchmark your current market conditions with hundreds of other printers. In July, we shared some market insights based on data pulled from the Monthly Industry Conditions Dashboard. This market monitoring report from our Economic and Market Research department can be used to determine where the industry is trending in the short term, which can help you better forecast demand for the coming quarters. In Industry Trends Report: Part 1—Monthly Sales we learned about the wide swings and modestly rising sales printers are experiencing. Positive sales for 2013 are predicted in Industry Trends Report: Part 2—Sales Expectations. How do we get these results? Survey respondents provide information in five principle areas—1) Monthly Sales, 2) Sales Expectations, 3) Profits, and 4) Print and Paper Prices. Current sales and profits are compared to the previous month. Printing prices and paper prices are current month compared to 12 months earlier. Sales expectations are expectations for next month compared to the current month. Respondents are asked to report the directional change of each of the five key indicators (increasing, decreasing, or no change). We’ll compare print and paper prices in two weeks for Part 4 of the series and where you can expect them to be in 2013. The findings you will read are based on July 2013 calculations using a net diffusion index. A net diffusion index is an index where the percentage of respondents reporting an increase is subtracted from the percentage of respondents reporting a decrease. The net diffusion index provides a simple snapshot of printers’ market perceptions for each...

In this four-part series, we’ll take a look at how each indicator from the Monthly Conditions Dashboard is affecting your business based on the survey results from the past 11 months. Charts are also provided to show the trends in an easy-to-read format, so you can benchmark your current market conditions with hundreds of other printers. Where do you expect your sales to go in 2013? Earlier this month in Industry Trends Report: Part 1—Monthly Sales, we told you about printers’ wide swings and recent modestly rising sales based on the Monthly Industry Conditions Dashboard.* This report is a new industry market trends report from our Economic and Market Research department that allows you to plan your business strategies each month. How does it all work? Survey respondents provide information in five principle areas—1) Monthly Sales, 2) Sales Expectations, 3) Profits, 4) Print, and 5) Paper Prices. Current sales and profits are compared to the previous month. Printing prices and paper prices are current-month compared to 12 months earlier. Sales expectations are expectations for next month compared to the current month. Respondents are asked to report the directional change of each of the five key indicators (increasing, decreasing, or no change). We’re taking a little vacation in July, but check back in August to see the latest industry profit trends in Part 3 of the series! The findings you will read are based on May 2012 to May 2013 calculations using a net diffusion index, where the percentage of respondents reporting an increase is subtracted from the percentage of respondents reporting a decrease. The net diffusion index provides a simple snapshot of printers’ market perceptions for each variable. Part 2: Sales Expectations Printers’ sales expectations have also experienced wide swings over the past 13 months and generally are a leading indicator for next month’s sales. The expectations index peaked at 39.6% in February of  2012 after hitting a low of –18.9% in November—one of only three negative readings during the past 13 months. The overall sales expectations index average for the period was 14.6%. In the first quarter of 2013, the monthly sales diffusion index and sales expectations index changed drastically from month to month. The end result was no growth in the first quarter of 2013 according to our Quarterly Print Market Survey. So far the first two months of the second quarter point toward slightly more consistent and moderate growth. Our panel expects the second quarter to end strong with 21% more expecting June sales to be stronger than May sales than those expecting sales in June to decline compared to May. Printing Industries of America members respond to a survey to uncover some of the key...