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Widthwise 2020
Q12. Which of these is the fastest growing within your wide-format operation?
make inroads when looking at kit/software buying plans.
As you would expect, 80.7% of respond- ents were involved in general banners/flags, followed by 68.4% in posters and 59.2%
in exhibition and display graphics. More companies said they now do floor graphics (35.96%) than retail/POP/POS work (25%) – the full breakdown can be found further on in the report (Q11). The most striking finding is probably that, asked to identify the fastest growing markets within their own business, more than four out of ten (40.8%) said it was similar across all their sectors. Opportunities for growth were felt to be highest in exhibition/display graphics (10.96%), and general banners/flags (10.1%) were the most identified otherwise.
The oft talked about – and so far over- hyped – textile print markets polled much lower down as fastest growing parts of individual PSP’s operations - textile for banner/flags cited by 2.6%, textile for home/interiors 1.75%, textile for garments 0.9% (Q12).
Textile print did garner attention when it came to markets respondents expected to enter in the next two years (though it is important to remember that most players are already involved in the more main- stream large-format print applications). While 7.0% said they would be moving into wallpapers/murals, following that came textile for banner/flags (5.3%), textile for home/interiors (4.8%) and textile for garments (2.2%).
Cardboard engineering (1.3%), industrial speciality (1.3%) and furniture print (0%) look as if they will remain extremely niche (Q13).
What most definitely does not look like remaining niche is environmentally-friend- ly printing. A whopping 80.7% said it is more important to offer ‘green’ options than it was two years ago, way up on the 40.1% that said so in the 2019 poll (Q39). It’s good news – for the industry and the planet – that 75% of PSPs already had some sort of environmental accreditation (Q41), and that many (47.8%) plan to measure/ cut their carbon footprint in 2020 (Q42). That said, there is one anomaly – 63.2% of PSPs also say only a ‘few’ clients ask about environmental credentials or their sustain- ability plans. A tiny percentage (2.6%) say most clients ask. That sounds counter-in- tuitive, but as this year has so emphatically reminded us, the speed and scale of change can wrongfoot us all.
Other Exhibition and display graphics General banners/flags/signage Transport graphics Retail/POP/POS Wallpaper/murals Posters Window graphics Fine art/photography Textile printing for banner/flags Building hoards/wraps Textile printing for home/interiors Floor graphics Textile printing for garments Industrial speciality (ceramics, metals etc) Billboard/outdoor advertising Furniture Packaging Cardboard engineering
40.79%
Q14. What is your order of your priorities for the next year? (Please rank 1-8, 8 being the most important and represented on the graph below)
10.96%
10.09%
6.14%
5.70%
5.70% 4.82% 3.51%
2.63% 2.63% 2.19%
1.75%
0.88%
0.88% 0.88% 0.44%
0%
0%
0%
Grow turnover Strengthen company image/brand/reputation Enter new markets Build overseas trade Find new customers Improve margins Invest in new technologies Improve return on capital employed
46.26%
25.66%
new digital large-format inkjet printer specifically in the next two years 54.39% said no (although 33.8% said yes) (Q29). When questioned about investment plans for software and finishing - with various options flagged up - 73.7% said they would not be investing in any of them. Where any money was expected to be spent it was on design software (11.4%), workflow software and web-to-print software (5.3% respec- tively) and in terms of finishing, on contour cutters (5.7%) (Q31).
Of the 33.8% which indicated that they planned to buy a new large-format inkjet
printer in the next two years, 22.1% said
it would be a flatbed, with UV roll-to-
roll having polled 19.5% and UV hybrid 18.19%. Solvent printers were still on the buying list for 20.8% of companies looking to buy presses, while dye-sub machines loitered towards the bottom of the pile (7.8%) (Q30).
As PSPs try to recover from the finan- cial damage inflicted by pandemic and lockdown, it is probably worth them considering the markets/type of work undertaken, where they expected to see the fastest growth, and where they planned to
20 | Widthwise 2020 | www.imagereports.co.uk
10%
7.48%
6.45%
5.12% 1.86%
0.96%