Business Management - Industry Trends

A new report on the K-12 in-plant sector highlights the rise of curriculum printing and wide-format during the pandemic as well as other changes school district in-plants are experiencing.

The pandemic brought school district in-plants into the limelight when many saw their volumes explode with curriculum printing to support remote schooling. Even as students returned to school, that curriculum printing continued for many.

As expected, RR Donnelley & Sons (RRD) common stock shareholders approved the acquisition of RRD by private equity firm Chatham Asset Management on Feb. 23, clearing the way for North America's largest commercial printer to become a privately-held company on Feb, 25, 2022.

The Alliance will highlight women in the printing industry through its Women in Print Alliance advisory group, special podcast presentations, dedicated editorial, and enriching content throughout the month of March.

‘Women’s Print HERstory Month’ coincides with Women’s History Month to align the telling of stories that empower and inspire the fierce fabulous females of print, as well as young women and students entering the industry or considering print as a career.

The Finnish Paperworkers’ Union issued a new strike, which shut down Finland’s ports and brought paper production and transport to a complete standstill. As an agreement is yet to be settled, industries are at further risk of severe disruptions to their supply chains.

This year’s CI Conference will be held May 1-4 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Members of PRINTING United Alliance receive a significant discount on event registration.

HP’s General Manager and Global Head of Large-Format Go-To-Market, Mercè Barcons, sat down to talk about the trends the company is seeing in the wide-format and signage space for 2022 and beyond.

Wide-format printers view 2022 with a mix of optimism and realism. They expect to grow and see opportunity in a broad range of products. But they also expect supply shortages and labor shortages.

Consultant Howie Fenton emphasizes the necessity of knowing how to quantify day-to-day performance, and establishing benchmarking ratios. He also describes five specific strategies used by industry leaders.