Special | Widthwise 2024
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
THIS YEAR 100 OF THE UK’S PRINT PROVIDERS TOOK THE TIME TO COMPLETE AN IN-DEPTH QUESTIONNAIRE ABOUT CONDUCTING BUSINESS IN THE LARGE-FORMAT DIGITAL INKJET PRINT SPACE - THE 17TH YEAR IMAGE REPORTS HAS UNDERTAKEN SUCH A TASK. THE FULL WIDTHWISE REPORT ANALYSING THAT DATA IS PUBLISHED ALONGSIDE THIS ISSUE, BUT HERE’S A PRECIS.
The topline stats are pretty great - a whopping 89% of the 100 UK-based large-format print companies polled for this 17th consecutive independent annual Widthwise Report said they were optimistic about business over the next two years, over half (52%) of the respondents saying they were ‘very optimistic’. Only 4% said they were in any way pessimistic, and even then, half of those said they were only mildly so. The full dataset - analysed in the pages of the Widthwise Report 2024 - shows a sector that is buoyant and optimistic on the whole, but with areas of concern. Let’s start with turnover and profitability. Over a third (36%) of the PSPs responding to this year’s survey turnover under £250,00, while almost a fifth (18%) turnover more than £1m, 4% over £5m. Happily, a large number (60%) saw their turnover rise in the year from the start of 2023, almost a third (31%) by over 10%. But that’s not to ignore the 14% that saw turnover fall in that period. Asked what their top priority was going into the next 12 months, growing turnover, unsurprisingly, took top spot - as it did in last year’s poll - with a third (34%) citing that as a key focus. Improving margin was next, flagged up by 19% - perhaps not coincidental given that when asked about profitability over the last year, 19% said they had seen a fall. Fortunately, 41% saw an increase in the same timeframe. In terms of revenue streams, retail is the biggest, with a third (34%) of PSPs putting it top, followed by events (14%) and manufacturing (14%). When it comes to what markets the responding PSPs are involved in overall, our general expectations were met in regards to the top spots being posters (68%), exhibition and display graphics (53%) and window graphics (42%). The more niche applications remain just that. Only 4% said they are involved in cardboard engineering, 4% in furniture, 5% textile printing for home interiors, 9% in packaging. Asked if they would get involved in any new
markets over the next 12 months, each vertical got just a trickle of yes’s, as you’ll see when you read the deeper analysis - though 16% said entering new markets would be their top priority in the coming year.
2024 An Image Reports publication
The 17th annual survey and analysis of the state of the UK and Ireland’s wide-format inkjet print sector
In association with
Over half (53%) of respondents said they expect the UK’s wide-format print market to grow in the next two years - though a not-to-be- dismissed 6% expect it to shrink. Could that be something to do with a general feeling of unease about the country’s economic climate? Asked to flag up their three greatest concerns about doing business in 2024, a whopping 79% of polled PSPs earmarked energy costs and 66% said the UK economy overall - not great, but better numbers than in the 2023 survey where they the same concerns bothered 91.48% and 80.68% respectively. The nervousness on the economic front is perhaps impacting investment levels - expectations are again low when it comes to anticipated spend. 78% said they would be spending less than £20,000 on wide-format technology in total over the next two years, and over half of the responding PSPs (60%) said they would not be buying a new digital large-format printer in the next two years. Where companies are investing it’s primarily on message - to improve efficiency - other benefits like increased quality and speed being much less of a focus. Asked specifically about the hot topic of artificial intelligence (AI) and its place in the industry, over half (54%) said they expect it to have a significant impact of the large-format sector in the next two years, yet only 4% said they would be investing in it during that time period - we look at that situation in more depth further in the full report.
So what about that other hot topic -
environmental sustainability? Over the past decade the data from this annual poll of PSPs has painted an unclear picture, and so it continues. While a 60% say it’s now more important for their company to be seen as environmentally friendly than it was a year previously, only 3% say ‘most’ of their clients ask to see their credentials or policies. And when it comes to customers paying more for greener print solutions almost a fifth (19%) say ‘none’ of theirs will cough up - though 9% say ‘most’ will. The majority of PSPs (64%) say a ‘few’ will dig deeper into their pockets, so let’s see if that number swells over the coming months and years.
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