Business Management – Market Research

A new IPG survey of in-plants in the manufacturing sector has yielded some interesting results: • The most common items printed are business forms (75% print them), tags/labels (72%) and brochures (69%). • Though slightly more (72%) offer offset printing than digital printing (69%), an impressive 54% handle CD/DCD production. • Less than half (45%) handle variable data printing. • Insourcing is done by 61%, with 40% of this work coming from local businesses. See the full report in our September issue.

NAPL’s Printing Business Index, the graphic communications industry trade association’s broadest measure of print activity, rose to 59.1 in March 2006 from 56.5 in February and 55.9 in January. (A reading above 50.0 means more printers report activity is picking up than report activity is slowing down; a reading below 50.0 means the opposite.) Gains in pricing, work-on-hand, hiring, and hiring plans account for the increase. Commercial printing industry sales also increased in the first months of 2006, up 8.5% in February and 5.9% in January, compared to year-earlier levels.