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Positive signs for print
Today, and for the sake of argument, let's take a different view and look at our UK businesses from a market-served, rather than a production process led perspective. What does it look like? I think it looks rather good, with growth being the operative word.
I see UK growth reported in the event marketing sector (vehicle graphics etc), POS and retail graphics, garments and textiles and industrial printing applications.
An extract from The Wide Survey shows precisely where this growth optimism lies in terms of market applications. When asked: ‘Which applications do you see growing and which do you see declining?' the response from over 400 respondents (80 per cent in Europe) is illustrated in the graph.
Driving the growth is the trend towards just-in-time, short runs, personalised or data-specific print, further impacted by trends in environmental legislation and retailers' desire to demonstrate greener credentials to stakeholders. It is worth quoting further from The Wide Survey to make us feel even better: ‘The effectiveness of point-of-purchase graphics and vehicle graphics from an advertising standpoint has been on the rise as other advertising methods, such as television, radio, newspaper and magazine advertising have all been negatively impacted by trends in those disparate businesses'.
When we look at the clear and present threat from digital signage (electronic displays), we see that printed media still has significant and competitive end-user advantages. Print is flexible in terms of size, installation site, media weight (per area viewed) and colour reproduction. It is also easy to see (even at low angles) and arguably at new sites, has a lower installation cost.
So, this is all good news for our industry. Though there is a clear message about the production processes needed to meet these growth areas. All these trends appear to point inexorably towards digital print technology and, in fact, The Wide Survey predicts that it will continue to take share away from the screen process (from 50 per cent in 2007 to nearly 80 per cent in 2012).
We anticipate screen will not die, it will find strong market niches such as biomedical sensor applications mentioned by Peter Kiddell in his article in April SPDI. For the purpose of long print-run work, screen process is expected to dominate for a long time to come.
In its new guise, the DSPA will address and support these growth areas for the benefit of UK businesses. The association's plans will be unveiled at Sign & Digital UK, 22 April, Birmingham, NEC.
*Fespa and Infotrends' The Wide Survey is available free to DSPA members and 1,500 Euro to non-members. Call DSPA's John Keith on 01737 240792 for a copy
