drupa Report: Printers moderately positive

Printers are cautiously optimistic about their companies: 42% of printers says their company is doing well and only 11% say that business is bad. Nearly half (46%) of printers are expecting an improvement this year. Packaging and industrial printers are generally more positive than commercial printers. Printers who are also publishers are the least positive.
Although printers and suppliers are relatively positive about the coming year, it is remarkable that expectations are moderate. Reason for these moderate expectations is the continuing decrease in price (and consequent lower margins) for the graphic industry. By supplementing income and more efficiency printers are able to compensate this.

Digital
The number of digital prints continues to rise. 40% of commercial printers says that a quarter of their sales is from digital. This is 14% for packaging, 22% for publishers and 62% for industrial graphic production companies.

The 4th drupa Global Trends Report 2017 has surveyed 839 printers of which 525 in Europe and 331 suppliers of which 220 in Europe. The complete report is available online for 249 Euro.

Source: drupa