Widthwise 2024


the 2024 Image Report Widthwise survey, two out of three wide-format printers cited the British economy as one of their prime concerns. Should print service providers be so


worried? Almost certainly not. Te fact is that, as the results of this annual survey have shown over the past 17 years, the wide-format sector has consistently, sig- nificantly outperformed the rest of the UK economy, even through the credit crunch, austerity, the pandemic, the cost of living crisis and, most seriously, the once all-per- vasive mythology that print is dead. At one roundtable to discuss the findings of a previous Widthwise survey a few years ago, Richard Clark, founder of Raccoon Graphics, expressed his relief that the same digital technology that created wide-format had not destroyed it, saying: “I used to fear that everything would go on screen. I don’t think that anymore.”


Q6. How have profits from your large-format print operations changed since the start of 2023?


Increased


No change Decreased


19%


41% 40%


It is encouraging to note that, in a


2023 study by Smithers Internal Re- search and Analysis, the print sector is expected to grow by 2.1% a year in the second half of this decade, almost twice as fast as the first. Although much of this extra revenue will be spent on print and packaging, it does suggest that, through a process we might call ‘trickle across economics’ - where money moves from one sector to another - that


wide-format could benefit too. Tat tempered optimism among print


service providers is reflected in the results of this year’s Widthwise survey. Six out of ten respondents say their turnover has grown since the start of 2023 and, more importantly, 41% say their wide-format print operations have become more prof- itable over that period. One of the most striking findings is that only 6% expect the digital large-format print market to shrink


www.imagereports.co.uk | Widthwise 2024 | 9


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