As 13,000 plus businesses associated with the wider sign-industry make their way to this years half way mark it seems like an age ago that the Christmas lights were twinkling on the winter ground. Perhaps this is a positive perception, as not only has the natural environment awakened from its hibernation, so to has the economic one for the wider print sector.
Indeed, the latest British Printing Industries Federation Outlook Survey has published quarter one results that show the UK print industries improved on balance for the fourth consecutive quarter, the longest period of growth since 1994. The survey, which used information from 102 companies employing 8,752 people, found 30 percent of firms have seen business positively improve, with more than 50 percent seeing steady trading conditions.
This is exemplified by a central company to the sign and print industry EFI, which recently posted a 26 percent year-over-year increase in revenues, posting figures of more than £86m. The chief executive officer of EFI contextualised the results, saying: “We continued to see strong customer loyalty for our Fiery digital print servers, along with accelerating demand globally for our software application products. At the same time, the strategic initiatives implemented to improve inkjet margins are showing solid results.”
This is no mean feat, but is perhaps helped out by industry confidence in the company following its series of high profile partnerships, such as with printer manufacturer Océ, which is part of the Canon Group.
I am also happy to report that following a visit to this years' Screenmedia Expo in London, there seems to be a rapidly growing number of technology companies directly targeting the sign-making community and its suppliers with digital signage. The biggest of these is Helwlett Packard, which in partnership with Scala, has launched a digital-signage-in-a-box system. The product was created so any sign-maker can buy, install, set-up and maintain the signage to retain regular customers desirous of using digital signage as part of their branding and advertising.