Page 10 - Widthwise Magazine

Widthwise 2020
Q6. Do you expect your wide-format turnover ratio to change in the next 2 years?
Increase Remain the same Decrease
61.84% 36.4%
1.75%
Q8. Do you expect your wide-format turnover to grow in 2020? Yes
No 12.72%
Q9. If yes, how much do you expect it to grow?
87.28%
6 – 10% 1 – 5% 11 – 20% 21%+
37.69% 27.14%
26.63% 8.54%
furlough scheme and its instructions to HMRC to go easy on debts. This may explain why, in July, there were only 955 company insolvencies in England and Wales, 34% down on 2019 levels. The bad news is that much of that financial support will come to an end in October (though the Bank of England has promised to
keep stimulating the economy as long as necessary). After October 2020, it is hard to make a vaguely educated guess about what will happen to the wide-format print sector or, for that matter, the British economy.
The dilemma facing many PSPs was summed up by one managing director’s comment to the BPIF: “Everything that we have learnt, all the knowledge is gone as retail trends, workload cycles and the security of business has been disrupted. Running your business on best guess is an uncomfortable place to be.”
The wide-format print sector’s compar-
ative equanimity partly reflects a feeling that, at when you get right down to it, the worst is probably over. They may be wrong
- given all the uncertainties surrounding a second wave of Covid-19 and the imminent scaling down of state support for the private sector - but there is significant, if largely anecdotal, evidence that, since June, busi- ness is returning. There is also a growing consensus that companies, feeling obliged to communicate with their customers more often and in more depth, will inevitably look to print,
At present, cautious optimism would probably be the best way to describe the state of mind of the UK’s PSP owners and managers: 21.6% expect Covid-19 to in- crease demand for wide-format print in the short to medium term; 36.4% believe the market will bounce back to previous levels and 42.0% are convinced that the market will shrink.
If you consider the different vertical mar- kets PSPs operate in, some contraction in demand - especially in the short to medium term - seems inevitable. More than eight out of ten Widthwise respondents produce general banners/flags/signage, almost
seven out of ten print posters and six out of ten are involved in exhibition and display graphics. Demand in all these sectors looks uncertain and volatile, as it does so in three other mainstream markets: window graphics, transport graphics and retail POP/POS. There is also a question mark over the future of the ‘experience economy’ in the light of continuing concerns about public health.
In short, trying to predict future demand for wide-format print in general, let alone in particular vertical markets, is a mug’s game. The priority for PSPs must be to
take stock of their past, present and future customers, keep an open mind and keep
10 | Widthwise 2020 | www.imagereports.co.uk