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 www.printing.org/2013-14ratios.