Page 8 - Widthwise Magazine

Widthwise 2020
The Findings: Business in Covid-19 context
Are you as smart as you like to think you are? Or have you just been the beneficiary of a growing market? These career-de- fining questions
are likely to be clarified in the next 12-18 months, as wide-format printing, like every other sector of the British economy, faces
a reckoning that will test the industry’s capability, character and creativity.
In the past months, we have been told that we are doing business in ‘unprecedent- ed times’ so often that we may be inclined to take it all for granted. Yet few British companies have experienced this degree
of existential uncertainty since the turmoil caused by the miners’ strike in 1973. As wide-format is a relatively young industry, this is the greatest challenge it has ever faced. No two companies will be in the same situation, experience the same threats or, for that matter, be presented with the same opportunities.
The experience of the 88 Print Service Providers (PSPs) polled for this second 2020 Widthwise report in July - after the initial survey earlier in the year - illustrates how stark the divide in the wide-format sector is. (It is important to remember that, at the time this poll was conducted, the
UK had still not emerged from lockdown.) One in four companies reported that their revenues had slumped to 0-20% of pre-pan- demic levels while 18.2% said their sales had not declined at all.
QA. How do your wide-format print revenues now compare to pre-Covid-19 levels at the start of 2020
0 – 20% 100% + 40 – 60% 20 – 40% 60 – 80% 80 – 100%
25%
18.18%
17.05%
14.77% 13.64%
11.36%
QB. How optimistic are you about your business over the next year?
This contrast is reflected in other recent surveys across the broader print sector:
in the UK by the BPIF (which found that
62.50%
44.32%
39.77%
31.82% 17.05%
15.91% 6.82%
Mildly optimistic Mildly pessimistic Very optimistic Neutral Very pessimistic
34.09%
QC. What are your top 2 immediate business priorities now? (Select 2)
21.59%
20.45%
19.32% 4.55%
Grow revenues Reduce costs Diversifying your large-format print offering Improve cashflow Diversifying into non-wide-format print markets Capital investment Other investment
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