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Widthwise 2024


The good, the bad and the unknown T


he 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. Te full dataset - analysed in depth in the pages of this report - shows a sector that is buoyant and optimistic on the whole, but with areas of concern. Let’s start with turnover and profit-


ability. Over a third (36%) of the PSPs responding to this year’s survey turnover under £250,000, while almost a fiſth (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 coin- cidental given that when asked about profit- ability 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 expecta- tions were met in regards to the top spots being posters (68%), exhibition and display graphics (53%) and window graphics (42%). Te 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


Q2. Number of employees in your company


1-5 6-10 11-20 21-51 52-100


More than 100 61% 17% 13% 6% 2% 1%


Q3. Where is your HQ?


England Wales


Scotland


Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland


92% 3%


2% 2% 1%


analysis - though 16% said entering new markets would be their top priority in the coming year. 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 coun- try’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. Te 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 pri- marily on message - to improve efficien-


cy - 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 ex- pect 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 this report. So what about that other hot topic - en-


vironmental 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 creden- tials 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 pock- ets, so let’s see if that number swells over the coming months and years.


www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2024 | 5


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