WidthWise 2011

Supporting the UK and Ireland wide-format market, our sponsors:

2011

An

Publication

ImageREPORTS

THE FOURTH ANNUAL SURVEY AND REPORT ON THE STATE OFTHE UK/IRISH WIDE-FORMAT PRINT SECTOR

04 �� STRATEGIC OVERVIEW Key findings of the 2011 Widthwise survey.

12 � STATE OF PLAY We look at how companies are performing and moving forward across threeturnover brackets: up to £500k, £500K-£2m, £2m+. Includes a case studyon a company in each bracket.

33 � SECRETS OF SUCCESSGrassroots LFP players provide their insights into performing well in today’smarket.

34 � SUPPLIERS’ VIEWPOINTSHow do the vendors see the marketplace and challenges for the future?

38 � SUSTAINABILITYWhy we need to be taking the issue more seriously.

42 � HOW GOOD IS YOUR COMPANY?Exploring the characteristics of enduring businesses.

46 � THE LAST WORD…goes to Paula Evans, at Manchester-based Transport Media whodiscusses what digital wide-format print has bought to the out-of-homeadvertising market.

Contents

thanks to our sponsors:

Hello and welcome to this, the fourth annualImage Reports Widthwise Report which, basedon data and comment collected from over200 UK and Ireland print companies involvedin wide-format print, is the most sector andregional specific publication of its type.

Via Widthwise survey feedback collated thisspring, face-to-face and telephoneinterviews, this 2011 Widthwise Report takes anitty-gritty look at the overall state of thelarge-format market and from the perspectiveof small (turnover up to £500,000), medium(up to £2m) and large (£2m+) printcompanies so that you can best judge yourlevels of success with like-sized competitionand plan for strategic development.

The Widthwise Survey data, provided bywide-format players of all shapes and sizes,has been compiled by graphic arts marketresearch and strategic consulting companyInfoTrends into a series of easy-to-digestgraphics that are presented in this reportalongside associated features by ImagesReports.

You can download a digital version of thisreport from the Image Reports website atwww.imagereportsmag.co.uk. If you haveany comments to make on the report there isan opportunity for you to do that online too.

Lesley SimpsonEditor, Image Reports [email protected]

WELCOME TO WIDTHWISE 2011

2011

Printed in Great Britain.No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrievalsystem or transmitted by any meanswithout the Publisher’s permission.The editorial content does not necessarily reflect the views of thePublisher. The Publisher accepts no responsibility for any errors contained within the publication.

St. John Patrick Publishers Ltd, 6 Laurence Pountney HillLondon, EC4Y OBLTel: 020 7923 8999Fax: 020 7923 [email protected]

Editor: LESLEY [email protected]

Publishing Director:CHRIS [email protected]

Design:TANIA KING

ver 200 companies involved in large-format

print from across England, Scotland, Wales

and Ireland responded to the 2011

Widthwise Survey which was carried out this spring.

This is the fourth consecutive year that Image Reports

has conducted the poll, which covers business, markets

and technology issues. During the last four-year period,

the large-format industry has been revolutionised by

technology and economic turmoil. Since that shake-out,

the pace of change hasn’t slowed but that change is

typically more incremental than transformational. The

2010 Widthwise report explored what wide-format

players needed to do to be at the leading competitive

edge, by looking at the need for diversification and the

growth of growth vertical markets. This 2011 survey/

report goes a step further and takes a more nitty-gritty

look at the state of a still unpredictable market from the

perspective of small (turnover up to £500,000), medium

(up to £2m) and large (£2m+) print companies so that

they can better judge their levels of success with like-

sized competition and develop their strategy accordingly

In terms of turnover, number of employees and

company location, the overall demographics of the 2011

survey sample was much the same as in 2010 – but

slightly more respondents this time around said wide-

format print accounts for 80 – 100% of their business

(23% opposed to 15% in 2010). Of those that said it is

not 100% of their business a whopping 71% expect to

see the ratio of such work to increase in the next two

years. And that’s because, as the survey makes clear,

there’s still good money in wide-format.

A quarter of all those polled said overall margins have

improved in 2010/11. Less encouragingly, 45% said they

had got tighter (the other 30% said no change). Of those

with turnovers of £2m+ only 15% saw margins increase in

the period while the figure jumped to 27% and 28%

respectively in the small and medium turnover segments.

So, are the smaller companies better positioned in terms of

flexibility and readier to try alternative, higher margin work?

Almost half of those polled (48%) said margins in wide-

format are better than in other parts of their print

business. This encouraging news was pretty consistent

whatever the size of turnover. Yet one in five large and

small companies reported that margins were not so

strong as in other parts of the business. Only a tenth of

those in the middle turnover bracket said that.

By far the biggest concern was the state of the general

economy, with 59.1% ranking that as their top worry

while 28% ranked price competition as their biggest

concern. Fewer than a fifth of respondents placed the

availability/cost of finance as the most serious challenge

they faced and foreign competition didn’t seem to

particularly worry respondents.

Despite the still shaky general economic situation, over

half of those polled (54%) said they plan to recruit in the

next two years, a figure that jumps to 64% for medium-

sized businesses. Print production comes top of the new

blood wish list, with 62% of those looking to recruit citing

this as a priority, followed by sales and marketing (36%),

design (30%) and finishing (26%). Only 7% flagged up the

need for more people to handle business development.

04

key findingsOverview and

WIDTHWISE 2011

71% of those for whom large-format is not 100% of theirbusiness expect to see the ratio of large-format workincrease in the next two years.

48% said margins in wide-format are better than in otherparts of their print business.

25% said overall margins have improved in 2010/11, while45% said they had deteriorated

51% ranked the general economy as their most majorconcern

54% plan to recruit in the next two years.

66% said entering new markets/offering new services was ahigh or very high priority

46% are making strategic change to win business from newapplications/niches

56% expect to buy a new large-format printer in the nexttwo years

44% will invest in design software in the next two years

59% think it is more important to offer ‘green’ solutions thanit was two years ago, while 18% think it’s not importantat all

10 BITES OF DATAO

WIDTHWISE 2011

basic demographics

Business

South-east England – 40%

Midlands – 17%South-west England – 10%

North-east England – 9%

North-west England – 9%

Ireland – 6%

Wales – 5%

Scotland – 4%

11-20 employees – 15%


100 employees – 8%



Up to £500,000 – 52.6%

£500,000 - 2m – 27%

£2+ – 20.4%

Under 20% – 32%

80-100% – 23%20-40% – 20%

60-80% – 13%

40-60% – 12%

No – 45%

Yes – 25%

No change – 30%

Yes – 48%

No – 18%

About equal – 34%

5.2%

General s

tate

of the

economy

Availib

ility / cost

of finance

Amount o

f new

entrants

intoth

em

arket

Price

competiti

on

Fore

ign

competiti

on

Recru

iting

staff w

ithth

erig

ht skil

l sets

3.29%3.61%

4.62%

2.34%

3.09%

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Yes – 54%

Not sure – 23%

No – 23%

Geographic Location

Number of Employees

Size by Total Turnover

% of turnover in wide format?

Have your overall marginsimproved in 2010/2011?

Do you plan to recruit in the next 2 years?

Are your wide-format margins betterthan other parts of your print business?

What are your major concerns for business in 2011/12 (rank 1 – 7, 7being most important) – Average rating, all respondents

05

The industry is clearly still adjusting to the seismic

changes wreaked by technology and recession. Almost

half (46%) of the respondents said they are having to

make strategic changes within their operation to win

business from new applications/niches – but this is

considerably less than the 70% who said the same thing

in 2010, suggesting that much strategic change has

already taken place.

A key strategic focus remains finding new markets and

offering new services: 66% of respondents said this was

a high or very high priority, with only 6% saying it wasn’t

a focus at all.

Unsurprisingly, almost three quarters (72.7%) of

companies are involved in poster printing, with exhibition

and display graphics (69.9%), general

banners/flags/signage (65.7%) following close behind.

But there are areas where the percentage of printers

involved is still relatively low: in textile printing for

garments (8.3%), packaging (14.8%), industrial speciality

(15.7%), textiles for home/interiors (17.7%) and

cardboard engineering (16.7%).

Perhaps that’s because there’s still enough perceived

growth in some of the mainstream markets. Over 22%

said exhibition and display graphics is the fastest

growing sector for their businesses, with almost 20%

saying the same about general banners/flags/signage.

With architects becoming more central to print

purchasing, it will be interesting to see how their

demands play out. In the 2010 Widthwise Report only 2%

of work was said to come from architects. This time

around it is nearer 8%.

Getting more involved with clients at an early stage in

graphics projects is certainly a growing trend. Almost half

(49%) of those surveyed now offer a creative design

service, and over a quarter (25.5%) have a total project

management capability.

To maintain the search for new business, especially

from new applications and niche markets, print

companies are involving creative teams earlier in

projects, but the survey clearly shows that the

restructuring/refocusing of sales and marketing teams is

by far the most urgent priority. Many companies were

also researching potential new markets and working more

closely with suppliers to identify new opportunities.

Textiles must certainly be one of those opportunities.

Only 6% of respondents said they own a textile printer

and a mere 8% said they intend to buy one anytime soon

even though 56% of respondents having said they intend

to buy a new large-format printer of some sort in the next

two years.

Over half (55.1%) of the companies surveyed said they

own a solvent (inc. eco-solvent) printer and 27% of those

06

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Design

Pre-p

ress

/ file

manip

ulatio

n

Print p

roductio

n

Finish

ing

Sales /

marke

ting

Managm

ent

Busin

ess d

evelopm

ent

Administ

ratio

n

General IT

support

Intern

et / o

nline d

evelopm

ent

Other

30%

9%

62%

26%

36%

2%7% 6% 5%

15%

1%

% o

f re

spo

nd

an

ts

Where are you primarily looking torecruit? (tick all relevant)

0% 5% 10% 15% 20%

Exhibition and display graphics

Retail / POP / POS

General banners / flags / signage

Wall murals

Textile printing for home / interior décor

Fine art / photography

Textile printing for banner / flags

Floor graphics

Posters

Window graphics

Transport grphics

Industrial speciality (ceramics, metals etc)

Billboard / outdoor advertising

Cardboard engineering

Building hoardings / wraps

Other

Textile printing for garments

Packaging

19.4%

15.7%

14.4%

12.5%

11.1%

9.7%

9.3%

9.3%

8.8%

8.8%

7.9%

7.9%

6.9%

6.5%

6.5%

4.2%

3.2%

2.8%

High – 39%

Very high – 27%

Medium – 22%

Low – 6%

Not a focus at all – 6%

How high a priority is finding/entering new wide-format markets/offering new services?

Which market areas are you looking at becominginvolved in over the next 2 years?

Business

WIDTHWISE 2011

07

PostersExhibition and display graphics

General banners / flags / signageRetail / POP / POSWindow graphics

Fine art / photographyWall murals

Transport graphicsFloor graphics

Billboard / outdoor advertisingTextile printing for banner / flags

Building hoardings / wrapsCardboard engineering

Textile printing for home / interior décorIndustrial speciality (ceramics, metals etc)

PackagingTextile printing for garments

Other

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

72.7%69.9%65.7%59.3%57.9%42.6%42.1%42.7%35.6%31.0%26.4%24.1%16.7%15.7%15.7%14.8%8.3%4.6%

Exhibition and display graphicsGeneral banners / flags / signage

Retail / POP / POSFine art / photography

PostersTransport graphics

Window graphicsWall murals

Building hoardings / wrapsBillboard / outdoor advertising

Cardboard engineeringTextile printing for home / interior décor

Industrial speciality (ceramics, metals etc)Floor graphics

PackagingTextile printing for banner / flags

OtherTextile printing for garments

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

22.2%19.9%13%12%10.6%9.7%8.8%7.4%6%4.6%4.6%3.7%3.2%2.8%1.9%1.9%1.9%1.4%

Direct from end client – 33.7%

Agency – 16.6%

Consumer – 13.6%

Print management – 9.7%

Architect – 7.9%

Other – 0.6%

Trade work (from another printer) – 17.8%

Where are you primarily looking to recruit?

Through which channels does your work come?

Up – 71%

Static – 25%

Down – 4%

If wide-format is not 100% of your business, do you expect to seethe ratio of wide-format to increase in the next 2 years?

0

20

40

60

80

100

Up to £500,000 £500,000 - £2m £2m+

% o

f re

spo

nd

an

ts

32%

20%

48%

40%

10%

50%

31%

22%

47%

About equal

No

Yes

Are your wide-format margins better than otherparts of your print business?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Creative design

Total project management

Variable data printing / versioning

Web-to-print

Website building / content creation

Database hosting / managing / cleansing

Other

49%

25.5%

9.4%

2.7%

2.7%

1.3%

4%

No – 54%Yes – 46%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Restructure / refocus sales / marketing teams

Attend seminars / reasearch new markets

Work more closely with suppliers to identify / sell

Realign your branding / company name / website

Involve in-house creative team earlier in projects

Spend more time on applications R&D

Buy in databases (for maketing purposes)

Appoint a ‘new business tsar’ / business

Recruit people with specific new sector knowledge

Other

55.2%

54.5%

52.7%

46.7%

26.7%

25.8%

17.6%

16.5%

14%

2.1%

Which added-value services do you offer?

Are you having to make strategic changes withinyour business to win business from new

markets/applications?

What are you having to do to win business fromnew applications/market niches?

Which of these is the fastest growing for your business?

WIDTHWISE 2011

investing in a new large format printer expect to buy one

of these machines. But UV is where it’s at. Almost half

(48.2%) of those polled said they now own a UV curable

printer of some description. 49% of those investing in

new kit said they will buy a UV machine – 33% plumping

for a flatbed.

Latex printers are also enjoying a surge in demand. In a

relatively short time they have made a significant impact,

with 6.5% of surveyed companies owning a latex printer

and 15% of those planning printer investment over the

next two years having earmarked a latex unit.

Asked if they were expecting to invest more across

their businesses in 2011/12 than in 2010/11, 41% of

respondents said they were - pretty much on par with the

percentage that said they would be spending about the

same (only 17% said less). In terms of large-format

investment, 38% said they would be spending less that

£20,000 while 4% plan to pump in more that £25,000.

Apart from spending on new printing machines, design

software was the most commonly identified large-format

investment area with 44.6% saying they will be buying

such packages. Laminators (18.8%) and contour cutters

(16.1%) came in next. Only a tiny minority plan to buy

into VDP (0.9%) or W2P (1.8%) software, so there is still

plenty of potential there. Asked what they wanted their

suppliers to focus their R&D on, printers said reducing

machine running costs was the top priority.

On the issue of the environment the picture remains

confused. While a walloping 59% of those polled said

offering ‘green’ options is more important that it was two

years ago, a significant 18% thought it not important to

do so at all and 9% thought it less important that it was

two years ago!

A much bigger percentage of print companies in the

top turnover bracket of £2m+ (more likely to work with

the bigger, more environmentally savvy retail clients)

thought it increasingly important than their smaller

counterparts. 26% of those companies with a turnover of

less than £500,000 actually felt green issues were

unimportant. Customers seem equally confused: only 4%

of printers said that ‘most’ of their clients asked for

environmental accreditation, while 63% said the question

has not arisen.

On the evidence of this survey, the large-format

industry is still in transition. Yet given the shocks it has

experienced since 2007, the most striking aspect of the

results in the 2011 Widthwise survey is the industry’s

sheer, bloody-minded resilience. In the middle of great

economic uncertainty, most printers – small medium and

large – seem to be making the strategic adjustments,

planning the investments and exploring the valuable new

niches that will help them flourish in the long run.

08

technology

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Finishing - laminator

Finishing - straight line cutter

Finishing - contour cutter

Print-and-cut roll-fed printer

Textile printer

Dye sublimation (non textile)

UV curable roll-fed printer

UV curable hybrid printer

UV curable flatbed printer

Solvent printer (inc. eco-solvent)

Latex printer

Aqueous printer

57.4%

27.3%

29.6%

21.8%

6%

9.3%

9.7%

13%

25.5%

55.1%

6.5%

30.6%

What type of wide-format equipment do you own

Other

Screen

Litho press

Flexo

Digital press - inkjet

Digital printer - toner

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

1.9%

6.9%

3.7%

0.5%

12%

31.5%

Do you own other types of printer?

About the same – 42%

More – 41%

Less – 17%

Yes – 56%

Not sure – 26%

No – 18%

Are you expecting to invest more in 2011/12than in 2010/11?

Do you expect to invest in a new wide-formatprinter in the next 2 years?

WIDTHWISE 2011

09

Which type of printer do you expect to buy?What technologies did you primarily operate

when you first bought into inkjet WF?

Aqueous prin

ter

Late

x prin

ter

Solve

nt prin

ter (

inc. eco-so

lvent)

UV cura

ble flatb

ed prin

ter

UV cura

ble hyb

rid p

rinte

r

UV cura

ble roll-f

ed prin

ter

Dye su

blimatio

n (non te

xtile)

Texti

le prin

ter

9%

15%

27%

33%

9%7%

5%8%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

Other

Software – VDP

Software – W2P

Software – design

Software – workflow / MIS

Finishing – straight line cutter

Finishing – laminator

Finishing – contour cutter

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

1.8%

0.9%

1.8%

44.6%

10.7%

5.4%

18.8%

16.1%

Do you expect to invest in any of the following forwide-format in the next 2 years?

Less than £20,000 – 38%

£20,000 - £75,000 – 35%

£75,000 - £150,000 – 16%

£150,000 - £250,000 – 7%

£250,000+ – 4%

Over 5 years ago – 61%

3-5 years ago – 17%

1-3 years ago – 17%

In the last year – 5%

Sign making – 24.5%

Other – 19%

Litho – 19%

Photo lab – 15%

Screen – 11.6%

Pre-press/repro – 10.9%

0 1 2 3 4 5

Machine / consumables reliability / consistency

Profiling / workflow

Cutting machine running costs

Cutting kit capital investment cost

Improving quality / speed

3.59

3.05

4.22

3.55

3.92

2.53 2.51

2.15

2.69

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

Problem

s with

machine re

liabilit

y

Problem

s with

consu

mables r

eliabilit

y

Kit sp

ec misl

eading

Workflow

In total, how much do you expect to invest in wide-formatprocess over the next 2 years?

When did your company buy its first inkjetwide-format printer?

What is the biggest technological issue you face?

Where would you like to see manufacturersputting their R&D

WIDTHWISE 2011

oes size matter? This is yet another issue

economists can’t quite agree on. The theory

is clear: as companies grow larger their

average total cost of production should decline and give

them the edge over smaller rivals. Yet diseconomies of

scale – larger overheads, wider distribution networks, lack

of flexibility – may blunt this edge. And with markets

volatile in a downturn, larger players can find it harder to

generate the volume they need to keep their average total

cost of production competitively low. The one industry

where size usually does equate to longevity is organised

crime but the mafia, which has its own particularly

effective way of maintaining its competitive edge and

dispensing with failed managers, is not that relevant a role

model for most large businesses.

Yet in a market revolutionised by economic catastrophe

and rapidly evolving technology, wide-format printing

businesses with sales of £2m have held up pretty well. In

the 2008 Widthwise Survey, 22 of the respondents

revealed that they had turnovers of £2m or over. Today, 19

are recognisably the same business, one has gone into

liquidation and two have been acquired –Lauren Displays

by a creative agency and Multigraphics by the

multinational packaging group DS Smith. Given the

carnage that has transformed so many other sectors of the

printing industry over the same period, such endurance is

impressive.

That doesn’t mean large companies have had it easy. Far

from it. And the 2011 survey suggests they still face

significant challenges but it says something about their

performance that their biggest worry by far is probably the

outlook for the UK economy. Yet even though the

economic outlook is as unpredictable as the weather

forecast, some of the biggest printers have decided to

invest (as the Evolve Group has done), revitalise their

image (Gardners) and experiment with 3D print (the

Simpson group).

BUSINESS

In 2011, for the first time, the results of the Image Reports

Widthwise survey are broken down by size of business.

While the responses show a fair degree of consensus

across the industry, there are some important differences –

especially for larger companies.

For a start, more than two out of three companies with

sales of £2m or more generated 40% or less of their

business from wide-format print and only one in seven said

this sector accounted for 80% or more of their sales.

Servicing significant, demanding customers in the retail

industry, many large digital print groups strive to offer a

diverse a mix of services and products. That said, with 77%

of larger firms expecting wide-format to supply more of

their turnover, this option is clearly increasingly favoured by

their customers. With 49% of larger print companies

already having environmental accreditation – compared to

18% across the industry – sustainability is not a trend on

the horizon but a reality of business life.

If you accept, as a rule of thumb, that larger print

companies tend to serve larger customers, this might

explain why margins were under significantly more pressure

among the wide-format industry’s biggest players. Only

15% said their margins had improved in the past year –

compared to an industry norm of 25% – while 42% said

they had deteriorated. This suggests that some larger print

firms have been under pressure to sacrifice margins to

maintain volume. Fierce competition has probably taken its

toll too: this was the second greatest concern for large print

firms.

The pressure does not seem to have significantly dented

business confidence or distracted many managing

directors from investing in the future. More than six out of

ten larger firms plan to recruit in the next two years and

they are looking to hire in three particular areas: print

production (where 57.6% of respondents planned to

recruit), finishing (39.4%) and sales/marketing (39.4%). The

quest for new sales/marketing staff is reinforced by the fact

that 60% of larger firms say they will restructure or refocus

12

State of play:For companies with a turnover of £2m+

WIDTHWISE 2011

D

THE MAFIA, WHICH

HAS ITS OWN

PARTICULARLY EFFECTIVE

WAY OF MAINTAINING ITS

COMPETITIVE EDGE, IS

NOT THAT RELEVANT A

ROLE MODEL FOR MOST

LARGE BUSINESSES

“”

their sales/marketing teams to explore new

applications and new niche markets. Just over half

wanted to make strategic changes, with 53% hoping

to closer collaboration with suppliers would help

them explore new applications.

Traditionally, printers’ marketing campaigns have

resembled showbiz marriages: short-lived, entered

into more in hope than belief and doomed by

unrealistic expectations. But the bigger large-format

printers have recognised their need to spread the

word. Their websites are now usefully informative,

not the electronic husks of yore. Last November,

Gardners hired brand design agency Stills to

makeover its image, including its website. McKenzie

Clark engages with potential customers with a blog.

Meanwhile, the Simpsons Group has launched what

it calls an ‘Influence Academy” to inform potential

customers while Augustus Martin has launched a

range of customer-driven consultancy services from

store audits to market research.

In an industry driven by digital technology, the fact

that so few companies made adequate use of the

internet was baffling, if not plain weird. What firms

are doing now might not be radical or transformative

but it does signify a shift towards some kind of best

practice.

MARKET ANALYSIS

Wide-format may have been the fastest growing

sector of the printing industry for at least a decade

now but things aren’t what they used to be – and

probably never were as good as we now think they

were. Though business has stabilised, the

marketplace is still tough.

The list of applications the largest wide-format

firms serve will startle no one. The most popular are

exhibition and display graphics (62.8% of

respondents were in this sector); posters, retail

POP/POS (both 55.8%); banners/flags/signage

(53.8%) and window graphics (46.5%). Probably he

biggest surprise was that 34.9% were involved in

cardboard engineering – compared to 16.7% for the

industry as a whole. The responses suggested that

many larger printers had taken the strategic choice

to focus on fewer markets but offer a more complete

service within those sectors: four out of ten offered

WIDTHWISE 2011

Up to £500,000 £500,000 - 2m £2m+

%o

fre

spo

nd

an

ts No change

No

Yes

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120

27% 28%42%

46% 45%

27% 28%

42%

15%

General s

tate

of the

economey

Availa

bility / cost

of finance

Amount o

f new

entrants

intoth

em

arket

Price

comparis

on

Fore

ign

competiti

on

Recru

iting

staff w

ithth

erig

ht skil

l sets

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

3.47 3.

6

4.94

3

3.06

5.65









Other

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

55.8%

62.8%

53.5%

55.8%

46.5%

18.6%

37.2%27.9%

41.9%

23.3%

25.6%

23.3%

34.9%

14%

14%

14%

2.3%

4.7%

Have your overall margins improved in 2010/2011?

What are your major concerns for business in2011/12 (rank 1-7, 7 being the most important).

Applications for larger firms(% of respondents involved in each sector)

13

total project management, 32% creative design and 16%

variable data printing/versioning. A small minority – 4% –

already offer Web-to-print services.

Despite the scale of these businesses, foreign

competition does not yet register as a significant worry.

That may change. It’s worth noting that Augustus Martin

has founded POP European Network, an alliance of the

largest POP firms in the major European markets. By

offering a standardised pan-European approach and

increased print power, Augustus Martin and its partners say

they can reduce the time to market. Given that so many

wide-format customers are multinational, you can certainly

see the logic. A similar rationale may be behind

Papergraphics’ acquisition of Dutch firm Quality Graphics

last November.

And then there is China. With a billion people, the world’s

second largest economy has an insatiable appetite for

signage. And the Chinese wide-format industry, which is

still relatively unsophisticated in terms of quality and

services, is full of young entrepreneurs who don’t have vast

experience in running a business. So Chinese wide-format

printers should be pretty busy keeping up with domestic

demand for a while yet. (As indeed will Indian companies as

wide-format grows exponentially there.) But the long-term

threat – it could be as soon as ten years from now – posed

by these emerging powers should spur British businesses

to make greater efforts to differentiate themselves.

Digital technology has simplified the media. The

impenetrable processes that used to frustrate, baffle and

constrain customers – and justify the printing industry’s

fees – have been bypassed. Customers now consume

media in a completely different way and, interacting

through digital channels, take a do-it-yourself approach to

the media that has created many new print markets. That

said, you only have to look at the history of the digital

transformation of print to see the dangers ahead.

Once choosing print begins to seem as simple as

downloading a track from iTunes, there is a danger that

customers will regard print as a commodity. The time to

educate the market is now – especially as many printers

now believe that many of the people who are responsible

for procuring print don’t necessarily understand what

they’re buying. This will be especially important as pre-

press companies, photographic houses and screen printers

all seek to diversify into a market that is relatively vibrant

and lucrative.

For larger printers, the imperative is to ensure their

customers realise the value – financial and strategic – of

their expertise. This need may explain why a third of larger

firms in this survey are looking to appoint a business

development manager and give their creative teams more

timely involvement in projects while 40% plan to realign

their brand/image/website.

Larger firms haven’t stopped looking for new markets –

though only 22.6% said it was a very high priority – but

some managing directors have clearly decided it’s more

important to look at the markets they are serve them well

and serve them a lot better.

TECHNOLOGICAL OUTLOOK

Companies with a turnover of £2m or more were slightly

bullish about investment than their smaller rivals: half said

they would spend more in 2011/2012 than in 2010/11 and

70% expected to invest in a wide-format printer in the

next two years.

They weren’t just eyeing up new printers: 36% expected

to buy design software, 23% in contour cutters for

finishing, 14% in laminators and software to handle

workflow or generate management information. One in 20

expected to invest in variable data printing software,

something no smaller companies were planning to do.

The length of this shopping list is reflected in the fact

that 19% planned to invest £250,000 or more in the next

to years, with another 14% expecting to invest between

£150,000-250,000. Maybe one of the enduring economies

of scale is the ability to spend more on the latest

technology than their smaller rivals. (That said, it is

striking that over one in four say they plan to invest less

than £20,000 in the next two years.)

If you look at what kind of printer larger firms expect to

invest in, that would certainly seem to be the case. Very

nearly two out of three say they will buy a UV printer of

14

WIDTHWISE 2011

PRINTERS’

MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

HAVE RESEMBLED

SHOWBIZ MARRIAGES:

SHORT-LIVED, ENTERED

INTO MORE IN HOPE THAN

BELIEF

“”

15

Big firms recruitment targets(% of respondents looking to recruit in each area)

WIDTHWISE 2011

some kind – and 46.7% are opting for a UV curable

flatbed printer. The other priorities are textile

printers, solvent printers (13.3%) and latex printers

(10.0%). The larger firms, who have the resource to

take a risk, have traditionally been early adopters of

technology – three out of four bought their first inkjet

machine five years ago or more – and they seem to

be plumping en masse for UV.

Asked what they wanted from the suppliers, larger

firms weren’t that much from different from the

industry as a whole. They would like better

quality/speed, lower running costs and their biggest

problem remains machine reliability. In the past,

some larger firms have also complained that their

different suppliers – of substrates, ink and machines

– don’t collaborate or communicate effectively.

THE LAST WORD

The wide-format industry has seen so much change

in the last four years it’s easy to overlook the

industry equivalent of Sherlock Holmes’s dog that

didn’t bark in the night. There haven’t been many

acquisitions by larger print and packaging groups

seeking to diversify into this market in the UK. The

most notable deals are quite old now: St Ives

purchase of Service Graphics in 2006 and DS

Smith’s takeover of Multigraphics three years ago.

There has been plenty of consolidation and strategic

realignment among suppliers, but not that much

really among print companies.

In part, this may reflect the commercial print

industry’s own financial troubles as the economic

crisis wreaked havoc. But as the recovery gathers

momentum, and banks become more amenable to

financing such deals, some opportunistic or strategic

acquisitions would seem likely.

Wide-format is no longer a niche market. If you

needed any confirmation of that, consider two

decisions the St Ives group has made this year. At

the end of January, the group relocated its large-

format division, Service Graphics, to massive new

premises in Chessington. Six weeks later, the group

sold off its magazine business. Five years ago, the

idea that wide-format would be more important to a

group as large as St Ives than magazine printing

would have seemed absurd. There is no more

compelling proof of the seismic shift which wide-

format has triggered in the printing industry.

Design

Pre-p

ress

/ filem

anipula

tion

Print p

roductio

n

Finish

ing

Sales / m

arketin

g

Managm

ent

Busin

essdev

elopment

Administ

ratio

n

General IT

support

Intern

et /onlin

edev

elopment

Other0

10

20

30

40

50

60

18.2

%

18.2

%

57.6

%

39.4

%

39.4

%

0%

9.1%

6.1% 9.

1%

18.2

%

0%0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Textile printer






Latex printer

Aqueous printer

13.3%

0%

10%

6.7%

46.7%

13.3%

10%

0%

0%1%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%7%

2%

12% 19%

14%

19%

19%

28%

29%

45%

12%

36%

56%

£250,000+

£150,000 - £250,000

£75,000 - £150,000

£20,000 - £75,000

Less tahn £20,000

Up to £500,000 £500,000 - £2m £2m+

Planned printer purchases(% of large companies expecting to buy)

In total, how much do you expect to invest in wide-format processover the next 2 years? (includes software and hardware)

16

WIDTHWISE 2011

State of play: Case Study

A showof strength

ow divested of its magazine print business,

St Ives Group is evolving into two distinct

parts: print and marketing services - the

latter still in its infancy and contributing just 2% to group

sales of £149m sales for the six months ending January

2011. Of the other 98% its large-format display

company Service Graphics (running under the division

heading Exhibitions and Events) accounted for the

smallest proportion of sales at 11% (Point of Sale 31%,

Books 28%,

Direct

Response and

Commercial

28%) but chief

executive

Patrick Martell

has made it

clear that he

anticipates “a

significant

increase in

activity within

this market”

and that

Service

Graphics,

which

relocated its

head office to

Chessington at

the start of this year, will benefit from the move and a

£4m investment strategy.

Service Graphics’ sales director Scott King says

growth is already being seen and is predicting the

company will turnover £38-£40m by the year end in July

2011. “We expect to see significant growth and to

become a bigger part of the St Ives Group as time

moves on, both in terms of turnover and profitability,” he

says. “That is largely due to the new site and the new

technologies we have recently acquired, but we are

seeing growth from all our sites in terms of turnover.”

Service Graphics has bases in Glasgow, Skelmersdale,

Nottingham, Kent and Salisbury but it’s the new 4,274m2

purpose-built factory in Chessington that is the focal

point. Primarily servicing the South of England and

London, the Chessington production supersite will

support the company’s other operations. It is where the

greatest efficiencies are being made and where Scott

believes it can woo customers to best effect.

“Customers come here and it’s immediately apparent

that we’re serious players and proactive in the market,”

enthuses King, “and we’re holding Open Days in June

for designers and creatives to see what we’re all about

etc. In the past Service Graphics was a bit of a sleeping

giant – it didn’t shout about what it did. A new

management team headed by Nick Cole was put in

place a couple of years ago and things began to change.

He rejuvenated us. He sits on the St Ives Executive

Board and that has helped. St Ives recognises that

large-format is a really strong growth sector and without

that we wouldn’t be in a new building and have made

the investment we have.”

Since summer 2010 Service Graphics has installed the

UK’s first superwide Durst Rho 500R roll-to-roll UV

printer, a Rho Tex printer and an Inca £20. “It has been a

huge investment but one which has brought economic

efficiencies through higher speeds etc,” says King. “It

also means we’re in a stronger position to service

customers and offer a wider range of solutions – and

that is what it’s all about.

“We expect to see a strong performance in 2011 and

moving forward, but the market remains competitive and

in all fairness, we won’t see it get back to what it was –

it’s a changed marketplace. We’re seeing spend coming

back in exhibitions and events, and retail and interiors

are growing markets for us. Our new site and new

technology gives us an advantage because the ability to

supply the correct solution, whatever that might be, is

what its all about, regardless of which market it’s for.

“Service and quality have always been our mantra and

now that means expanding the solutions we offer,

though print remains key within that solution – and that

will remain the case.”

But the move to Chessington is about more than

production capability: “It has brought a culture change

and a new vision which will take us to the next level,”

says King. “We’re doing much more about cross-

fertlisation in the business. Clients want a ‘relationship’

but they are happy to talk to more than one person,

often because the large clients have more than one

N

Sales director Scott King expectsgrowth in turnover and profitability

17

WIDTHWISE 2011

person dealing with a job anyway, So it’s quite common

for the designer to be talking to a client as well as the

account handler etc.

“We’re investing a lot in multi-skilling staff. As a large

operation we have to be sure we have the correct

knowledge base among the staff to compete with

smaller companies where owner/managers are talking to

clients and have a good overall view of what can be

achieved. The aim is to get the whole staff to fully

understand the business we work in. The directors all

get their hands dirty and sell and manage accounts too.

A new MIS system being installed across the Service

Graphics family of sites will help provide the data

analysis of various KPIs which can then be passed on to

the staff. “Communication is crucial to success which is

why we started an internal blog last year,” says King.

“It’s important to have all the staff on your wavelength.

When we were looking at the move to Chessington we

realised we only had a small corridor in which we could

retain staff and that mattered to us. In the end we only

lost three out of 200 in the move which meant we had a

strong buy-in from the employees and we continually

update them on what’s happening in the company.”

King says suppliers have also bought into the Service

Graphics’ vision. “We’ve seen an upturn in the last 12

months so we’ve sat down with suppliers and said

‘Look, this is the journey we’re on’ and they seem happy

to come with us.

“I would argue that wide-format has been the fastest

growing part of print for the last 15 years. We have been

continually taking new products to market, largely within

our existing markets because we think there’s enough

growth there to do that. However, how we work with

suppliers has changed. We are true partners now, both

actively looking for new offerings to take to market.

We’re finding that suppliers more readily now come and

talk about R+D possibilities etc. And we have kit people

coming to ask where we think there are gaps in the

markets. There’s much more synergy between printers

and suppliers than in the past.

“For instance, we open up the sales team to suppliers.

I’ve sent salespeople away for two days at a time to

have a proper dialogue about what can be achieved with

various materials etc. I have eight customer service guys

off to a supplier for three days next week etc.

“At the end of the day it’s about being in a flexible

enough position to a service customers’ changing

demands and still make money”.

A view of the print production area at the new Service Graphics’Chessington site

he Greek philosopher Aristotle argued that the

middle ground was a good place to be. He might

have changed his mind if he had been born

2,400 years later and been running a wide-format printer with

a turnover of more than £500,000 but less than £2m.

Medium-sized businesses do not have the flexibility of

smaller, nimbler rivals. One of the downsides of growth is

that it tends to create structures and demarcations that

didn’t previously exist. If management isn’t vigilant, fixed

costs can creep up. Neither do medium-sized firms enjoy the

economies of scale – or easier access to finance – available

to big companies. And even though they generate more

revenue than smaller rivals, there is precious little margin for

error. Every major decision is critical for the business. These

factors may explain why, traditionally, medium-sized printing

companies have been hit hardest when the industry

experiences economic turmoil. Yet despite these

considerable challenges, four years after the credit crisis,

medium sized wide-format printers seem – from the findings

of the 2011 Image Reports Widthwise survey – to be in

reasonable shape and looking to the future with a degree of

cautious confidence.

STATE OF BUSINESS

Profit margins remain the surest indicator of a wide-format

printer’s health. And that yardstick suggests medium-sized

printers are not doing too badly: 28% said their margins had

improved, while another 28% said they had remained

constant. In this respect, they were performing very slightly

better than the industry as a whole.

This may partly be explained by the fact that half of the

medium-sized businesses said their margins in their wide-

format business were better than in the other parts of their

print business. This was slightly better than for smaller and

larger rivals. Only one in ten said their wide-format margins

were worse, compared an industry norm of 18%. From these

findings it seems entirely sensible that almost 71% of

respondents in this sector expect wide-format printing to

account for a larger slice of their business in the next two

years. The relative buoyancy of medium-sized firms may

have something to do with the fact that they already derive

more of their business from wide-format: 42% said it

accounted for more than 60% of their revenue.

The findings suggest a degree of optimism about the

future and this is reflected in their slightly more bullish

intentions on recruitment: 64% plan to hire staff in the next

two years, compared to 54% across the industry. And only

one in seven medium-sized firms says they will definitely not

recruit. There were no great surprises when firms were asked

what kind of staff they wanted to recruit: the biggest

priorities were print production (a target for 52% of medium-

sized firms), sales/marketing (38%), finishing (28%) and

online development (18%).

This confidence was also reflected in the finding that firms

with sales of between £500,000 and £2m were slightly more

likely to be planning strategic change (54% compared to an

industry average of 46%). To win business in new areas or

with new applications, medium-sized firms were focusing

more time and money on R&D (52%), realigning their

brand/website (35%), and restructuring their sales/marketing

teams (33%).

Yet medium-sized printers are not being unrealistically

bullish. They do have worries – their biggest being price

competition. Like their smaller and larger rivals, they are

concerned about the state of the economy and new entrants

into the market. But they are also slightly more worried about

their ability to recruit the right staff.

MARKET ANALYSIS

Wide-format printing has tended to derive the bulk of its

turnover from a few well-known markets: posters, exhibition

and display graphics, general banners/signage and retail.

They remain the largest sectors for medium-sized printers

but the findings suggest these firms are looking a bit further

afield for work. They are more likely, for example, to be in

wall murals, transport graphics, floor graphics, billboards,

textile printing for banners and flags, building

hoardings/wraps, textile printing for home/interior décor,

industrial specialty (ceramics, metals etc), and packaging

than smaller and larger firms. Medium-sized firms were

especially strong, comparatively, in transport graphics,

building hoardings/wraps, industrial specialty (ceramics,

metals etc) and packaging.

Nor, it would seem, are they content to stop there: 78%

said opening up new markets and offering new services was

a high or very high priority, compared to 66% for the industry

as a whole. The value-added services medium-sized firms

already offer tended to fall in three categories: total project

management (37%), creative design (35%), and variable data

printing (14%). Yet the most emphatic evidence that

medium-sized firms are not content to rest on the laurels is

the finding that 52% of them are investing more time in

20

State of play:For companies with a turnover of £500,000 - £2m

WIDTHWISE 2011

T

R&D for new applications – compared to 12% for

smaller firms and 27% for businesses with sales of

£2m or over.

This does seem to contradict conventional wisdom

which suggests that wide-format printers are better off

focusing on – and acquiring a deeper understanding

of – a particular niche but many managing directors

obviously feel that it’s more important to spread the

risk, with a portfolio of markets that ensures they don’t

rely too heavily on a single customer.

What’s driving this quest for new markets, niches

and applications? There are virtually no barriers to

entry in the wide-format sector – Boyall Graphics, the

subject of our case study, started life as a screen

printer – and the diversification drive by many

traditional print companies may have forced medium-

sized specialists in large-format to innovate by

developing new services and taking a fresh look at

what they offer the market.

The economic crisis has changed customer habits

too. Most still insist that quality is more important than

price – but then they would say that wouldn’t they?

Buyers are desperate to ensure their advertising

makes the biggest impact while incurring the smallest

costs for storing and managing materials. So the

pressure is on for faster turnarounds, just-in-time

production, increased automation, shorter runs and

for versioning/personalisation – although the evidence

from this survey would suggest that this last trend is

not yet as prevalent as some of the hype might

suggest.

What is clear from the 2011 Widthwise survey – if

you look at the value added services medium-sized

firms already offer their clients – is that many

companies already look less like old fashioned print

suppliers, quoting for jobs on a cost per square metre

basis, and more like strategic marketing partners. This

transition has gone from boardroom rhetoric to

commercial reality, enabling firms to generate more

added value, deepen their relationships with

customers and diversify into such services as data

driven measurement and project management.


With slightly better margins than the rest of the

industry – and a wider spread of markets – medium-

WIDTHWISE 2011

%o

fre

spo

nd

an

ts

About equal

No

Yes

0

20

40

60

80

100

32% 40%31%

20% 10% 22%

48% 50% 47%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Up to £500,000 £500,000 - 2m £2m+

24% 22% 24%

15%

61%

14%

64%

30%

46%

Not sure

No

Yes

%o

fre

spo

nd

an

ts

Yes

No

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

51.6%£2m +

£500,000 - £2m

Up to £500,000

48.4%

54% 46%

41.2% 58.8%

Are your wide-format margins better than otherparts of your print business?

Do you plan to recruit in the next 2 years?

Are you having to make strategic changes withinyour business to win business from new

markets/applications?

21

sized firms look well placed to make strategic investments

in technology and 43.5% expect to invest more in 2011/12

than they did in 2010/11, with 41.3% spending about the

same and only 15.2% spending less.

More than six in ten expect to buy a new wide-format

printer in the next two years. This should be good news for

UV machine suppliers as just over half expected to buy a

UV printer of some kind, with 31.3% having their eye on a

new UV curable flatbed printer. The other most popular

targets were latex printers (16.7%), solvent printers

(14.6%) and textile printers (8.3%). Latex printers are

clearly making considerable headway as a fast, green

alternative to solvent printers for outdoor applications.

Printers are not the only focus for investment by

medium-sized businesses. The other principal items on

their shopping list are design software (39%), contour

cutters for finishing (24%), and software designed to

offer better management information or improve

workflow (15%).

Although Boyall Graphics has used management

information systems to analyse key performance

indicators that help it understand business performance,

only a minority of printers seem to want to use these

systems to their full potential. For all the fanfare that

surrounds web to print applications, medium-sized firms

are the only ones in the 2011 Widthwise survey to say they

will invest in this technology.

Reducing running costs and improving quality and speed

should, the medium-sized firms who responded to this

survey suggested, be the principal focus for

manufacturers’ R&D budgets. Any by a small margin, hey

said that the reliability of machines and consumables were

the most pressing technological issues they faced.

THE LAST WORD

Large-format printing companies with turnovers of more

than £500,000 and less than £2m which have survived the

economic strife of the last four years now look poised to

prosper – as long as the fragile recovery in the UK

economy doesn’t completely run out of steam.

They are slightly more bullish in their attitude to

investment and recruitment than their smaller and larger

rivals and yet they also seem, from this survey, to have no

illusions about the challenge they still face. The strongest

companies in this sector already seem to have realised that

strategic change, which used to be something a company

contemplated every decade or generation, may never be

entirely off the agenda.

22

Applications for medium-sized firms(% of respondents involved in each sector)

WIDTHWISE 2011









Other

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

78.9%

78.9%

70.2%

61.4%

66.7%

43.9%

47.4%

49.1%

49.1%

33.3%

29.8%

33.3%

21.1%

19.3%

24.6%22.8%

7%

8.8%

How high a priority is finding/entering new wide-formatmarkets/offering new services?

Up to £500,000 £500,000 - £2m £2m+

%o

fre

spo

nd

an

ts

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100% 6.9% 6%

16%

3.2%3.2%

22.6%

44%

34%

0%10.8%

24.5%

33.3%

24.5%

48.4%

22.6%

Not a focus

Low

Medium

High

Very high

Planned printer purchases (% of medium sized companiesexpecting to buy)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Textile printer






Latex printer

Aqueous printer

8.3%

6.3%

6.3%

12.5%

31.3%

14.6%

16.7%

4.2%

24

WIDTHWISE 2011


On the Boyallalk about return on investment. The decision

to buy a Spuhl Virtu RS35 3.5m flatbed

printer in 2008 has been core to a total

business refocus and subsequent growth path for Boyall

Graphics in Northampton.

The company, which had a turnover of £990,000 last

year and anticipates nudging up to just over £1m for

year ending Dec 2011, started out 25 years ago as a

screenprinter with owners Jeff Boyall and Wayne Cayton

working from a converted garage, producing artwork by

hand before exposing it with an enlarger in a darkroom

and making screens ready for print.

Today things are very different, with 20 staff operating

what is now practically an all-digital house, the central

attraction being the Virtu printer - a savvy investment

made on the back of a strategic decision to reshape the

business.

“Five years ago everything changed,” says Paul

Hickmott, who was brought in as business development

manager to help steer the company in a new direction.

“At that time the company was a screenprint operation

really driven by three big customers and serving the

vending machine graphics sector. It was great that the

likes of Coca Cola were on board, but the whole

situation meant that a lot of cashflow was tied up in

stock and when new Health and Safety guidelines on

healthy eating impacted on the vending machine market

the directors realised it was time to change.”

The upshot was a proactive plan to broaden the

customer base and spread the risk, and to reduce stock

levels to free up more cash for development. “So was

born the idea of focussing on digital print and its

capability of delivering a much wider range of products,”

explains Hickmott. Hence the Virtu purchase.

T

Caption

Paul Hickmott was brought in as business development manager to help steer a new course for Boyall

25

WIDTHWISE 2011

The impact has been massive. First off, the vending

machine graphics business was switched to this

production method then work began on seeking out

new applications for new markets. Within its first full

year of service Hickmott says the machine helped

bring in £50,000 of new business. The company

budgeted for another £50,000 the following year and

took £100,000. Not only that, but the £380,000 tied up

in stock fell to £100,000.

“That’s when we realised the true potential of what we

had,” says Hickmott. “It was clear that, with so many

exhibitions companies in the area, that we should

straight off turn ourselves into a full service provider,

which is what we did. That was great, because a lot of

exhibition operations began using us because they could

see that they could cut out the subcontractor. And we

didn’t have to grow our sales force either – because the

work was coming in anyway.”

Given that nobody else in the area had one of these

machines, and still don’t, the sensible thing to do was to

activate a really strong marketing campaign to spread

news of the company’s capability even further.

“About two years ago we implemented regular

marketing campaign (targeting the exhibition sector

primarily) which we then follow up with phone calls. And

we get a great response.” enthuses Hickmott. “The

decision was taken to repeat the process again, over a

slightly bigger geographical area, and likewise, this is

paying off.”

But it’s not all about exhibition graphics. Having

learned from the vending machine sector that its best to

spread the risk, Boyall has spread its net and actively

gone after other, more niche business.

For instance, a couple of years ago Boyall entered into

a partnership with Radhats to provide fully-branded hard

hats to the construction and other industries. Boyall

spent a year doing R+D into the methodology of the

print job (for which it holds the patent) but was helped

with costs by grants from various government bodies.

The partnership brought in £30,000 last year and its

growing.

In another move Boyall is working with a company that

sells furniture into cafes etc., to produce bespoke

printed tables, chairs and the like. It’s also involved with

other high margin niche work – like glass splashbacks

for kitchens.

“You have to tread a fine line between investing money

in machinery that will help you explore new applications

and markets and doing what you can with what you’ve

got. The latter may make you feel safe, but it’s not really

longer term - you’ve got to invest continually, not just in

capital, but in time and energy,” adds Hickmott.

“It’s not just the new kit that has helped Boyall on a

new growth path. Or marketing the applications it can

handle. We’ve had to learn about Key Performance

Indicators (KPIs) and understand fully how to use the

information from management information systems. We

now have regular management meetings and a Board

meeting each month. Plus we have weekly departmental

meetings – everyone being much better informed of the

issues affecting the business means they understand

direction of the company and feel happier. Like many

people we’ve had to tighten our belt but we’ve

discussed it at weekly meetings where is has gone down

better than may have done otherwise.

“The management team knew that with the new

equipment installed there would be a need for fast turn

around and chasing of quotations and orders along with

a growth in the number of smaller, locally based

customers as the company became more competitive

than the next printer!

“The company rose to the challenge, changing its

ethos from reactive to proactive. The result was a fast

turn around of quotations and orders, no need for cash

to be tied up in stock as orders could be met same day

if required. To support this new capability the company

implemented marketing campaigns comprising targeted

email campaigns into pre determined market sectors,

advertising and editorials in local newspapers and

entered trade competitions to strengthen its brand

collateral locally and within the specific market sectors

the business had decided to target. Last year saw

revenue from new, smaller, locally based customers

increasing by 100% from the previous year so the plan

is working!”

mall businesses are the lifeblood of a

developed economy – that is one of the few

certainties even economists can agree on.

Such titans of commerce and industry as Richard

Branson and Sir Alan Sugar have their place but a

country’s economic health owes a lot more to thousands

of smaller companies that seldom hog the headlines.

Burdened by regulation, squeezed by suppliers and

customers, paid lip service to by politicians, small

business owners don’t often feel like heroes. But in the

face of the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s

many of these entrepreneurs have shown what John

Wayne – or Jeff Bridges in the recent remake of the

famous Western – would call true grit. The 2011 Image

Reports Widthwise survey suggests that large-format

companies with a turnover of less than £500,000 remain

resolute even though margins may be tight, finance

neither cheap nor plentiful and the economic outlook is

just one giant question mark.

The results also challenge some common

misperceptions. Small businesses are often branded as

technological recidivists but a significant proportion of

smaller, wide-format printers have embraced social

media. Entrepreneurs are often lambasted for blinkered

complacency yet the vast majority of smaller companies

in this survey are contemplating investing in design

software as they try to add value while four out of ten

plan to make significant strategic changes. Large-format

printers with a turnover of less than £500,000 may face

some tough challenges in the present but nobody could

accuse them of ignoring the future.

STATE OF BUSINESS

In a year where the UK economy grew by just 1.7% – and

16,044 businesses became insolvent – just surviving felt

like thriving. Over 100 large-format printers with

turnovers of £500,000 or less took part in the 2011

survey and their responses create an intriguing portrait of

an industry where the last 12 months have been good (for

a surprising number of companies), bad and sometimes

downright ugly.

Let’s put some figures on this. On the whole, although

half of companies with a turnover of £500,000 or less

reported that wide-format accounted for less than 40% of

their sales, this sector generally delivered a greater

proportion of their revenue than for their larger rivals. In a

difficult trading year, 27% of small companies managed

to improve their margins, 27% saw no change and 46%

said their margins had deteriorated. The good news was

that 48% said their wide-format margins were healthier

than on other parts of their print business. That may

explain why seven out of ten said they expected more

of their turnover to come from wide-format in the next

two years.

Looking ahead, the major concerns for smaller

companies in the wide-format sector were the general

state of the economy, price competition and the number

of new players seeking to break into the market (see

chart 1). Finance remains an issue – no great surprise

given that the Bank of England has recently found that

banks are still failing to meet their targets for lending to

businesses – but the responses suggest it is less of a

concern than might have been expected.

Such worries may explain why smaller printers are

significantly more bearish about recruitment than

medium-sized or large businesses: only 46% were

planning to recruit in the next two years and three out of

ten weren’t looking to recruit at all. Yet they were more

bullish when it came to investment, with 38% expecting

to spend more in 2011/12 and 44% planning to spend

about the same.

These results are supported by surveys by

organisations like the Federation Of Small Businesses

which have found that although entrepreneurs are

becoming more confident, most aren’t expressing that

confidence by hiring new staff. With 64% of respondents

to the 2011 Widthwise survey having ten employees or

less, head counts may not change significantly until the

recovery gathers momentum. Some small companies (see

case study) have developed a business model which

relies on a few, multi-tasking staff, abandoning the more

rigid demarcations of times gone by, and may be quite

happy not to recruit for years to come.

In good times, companies focus on growth. Bad times

tend to concentrate the mind on cash and margins.

Reading between the lines, the 2011 survey does suggest

that many companies have realised that some kinds of

growth can seriously damage the health of a business.

Four of ten smaller companies were making strategic

changes to enter new markets, add value, expand their

range of services and/or to reshape their business for the

challenges ahead.

State of play:For companies with a turnover under £500,000

WIDTHWISE 2011

S

27

MARKET ANALYSIS

As a rule of thumb, the markets served by large-format

printers with a turnover of less than £500,000 are much

the same as for bigger companies. The usual suspects

– posters, exhibition and display graphics, general

banners/flags/signage, retail POP and POS and

window graphics – would seem to supply the bulk of a

printer’s turnover, no matter what size they are. These

five sectors – and fine art photography – are also

expected to generate the most growth. That said, there

are some differences in emphasis: smaller firms are

significantly more likely to be involved in fine

art/photography and textile printing and less likely to

be offering cardboard engineering.

There is a natural tendency for smaller firms to focus

more narrowly on a few key markets or customers. That

may explain why, the 2011 survey results suggest,

finding a new market is less of a priority for smaller

printers. One in six said that developing markets was a

low priority, or no priority at all, one in four didn’t

regard it as particularly important, while the same

proportion regarded developing new markets and

services as a top priority.

Yet if you analyse what smaller companies are doing

to win new business, they seem much less complacent:

47% are attending seminars/conferences (some

investment for companies that typically have less than

ten staff), four out of ten are forging closer links with

suppliers, and one in three are seeing to improve their

brand image. Sales forces are always under pressure in

a recession so it is no surprise to find 38% of smaller

firms seeking to restructure their sales and marketing

efforts. One in eight small firms were taking the destiny

in their own hands by spending more on applications or

R&D. Some suppliers have been willing to help printers

experiment with new materials for little or no outlay.

Wide-format printing is not a commodity although it’s

often bought as such – especially since the recession

when many customers got rid of many experienced (ie

expensive) staff in their procurement departments. In

their desire to add value, most smaller firms have put

their faith in creative design: almost two out of three

offer this service and over half expect to invest in design

software in the next two years. Investing in design is not

new but it looks like a profitable strategy for printers as

they seek to build closer, more enduring (and hopefully

more lucrative) relationships with their customers.

28

General s

tate

of the

economey

Availa

bility / cost

of finance

Amount o

f new

entrants

intoth

em

arket

Price

competiti

on

Fore

ign

competiti

on

Recru

iting

staff w

ithth

erig

ht skil

l sets

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

5.46

3.11 3.

59

4.45

2.27

2.97

Major concerns for small businesses(Average rating 1-7, 7 being the most important)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Up to £500,000 £500,000 - 2m £2m+

24% 22% 24%

15%

61%

14%

64%

30%

46%

Not sure

No

Yes

%o

fre

spo

nd

an

ts

Do you plan to recruit in the next two years?









Other

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

79.3%

71.2%

71.2%

62.2%

60.4%

53.2%

45%

27.9%

43.2%

30.6%

26.1%

20.7%

8.1%

15.3%

12.6%

11.7%

11.7%

2.7%

Applications for smaller firms(% of respondents involved in each sector)

WIDTHWISE 2011


With economists arguing in public over the prospects

for the UK economy, smaller wide-format printing

companies could be forgiven for stalling or slashing

their investments. Yet they appear to be taking a

relatively robust stance: only 18% expect to spend less

in 2011/12 than they did in 2010/11 and 50% plan to

invest in a wide-format printer in the next two years.

The scale of these investments may not be huge – 93%

plan to invest less than £75,000 in wide-format in the

next two years – but it represents a significant risk for

companies with sales of £500,000, especially given

that many are still facing pressure on their margins.

The technological focus for smaller firms is slightly

different than for the industry as a whole. The most

popular big ticket items are UV curable flatbed printers

but only 22% of smaller firms plan to buy one in the

next two years, compared to 46.7% for firms with sales

of £2m or more. The expense of UV is perhaps still

something of a deterrent for smaller firms who are far

more likely to invest in a solvent printer than their

larger rivals. Yet the research suggests that smaller

print companies have been quick to appreciate the

potential of aqueous and latex printers.

The 2011 survey doesn’t reveal any great

enthusiasm for such trendy applications as variable

data print or Web-to-print in any sector of the wide-

format industry but smaller firms appear even less

intrigued by these innovations than their larger rivals.

One intriguing paradox jumps out of the results. Asked

to identify the biggest technological challenge they

faced, smaller printers identified workflow yet only 7%

expect to spend money on software to ease this

problem. Maybe the software suppliers still have some

convincing to do.

THE LAST WORD

Since the 2007 economic crisis, running a small

business in the wide-format printing industry has been

far from beautiful. The wonder – especially in an

industry that was also undergoing rapid, significant

technological change – is that more owners didn’t

choose to ride off into the sunset. But from the 2011

Widthwise survey, you get a sense of a sector that

does, at least, believe it is back on solid ground and

has decided that even though it can’t predict the future

it can still plan for it.

49%

1% 4% 3% 5%

16%

65%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%

Other

Databse

hosting

/ managing

/ cleansing

Website

building

/ content c

reatio

n

Web-to-p

rint

Varia

bledata

printin

g/ ve

rsioning

Tota

l pro

ject m

anagement

Creativ

edesig

n

Value-added services offered by smaller firms% of respondents offering services

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Textile printer






Latex printer

Aqueous printer

3.5%

4.7%

4.7%

5.8%

22.1%

33.7%

12.8%

12.8%

Planned printer purchases(% of smaller companies expecting to buy)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Finish

ing– conto

ur cutte

r

Finish

ing– la

minato

r

Finish

ing– str

aight li

necutte

r

Softw

are– workfl

ow/ M

IS

Softw

are– desig

n

Softw

are– W

2P

Softw

are– VDP

Other

9%

4%

26%

7%

51%

0% 0%

4%

Do you expect to invest in any of the following forwide-format in the next 2 years?

29

WIDTHWISE 2011

30

WIDTHWISE 2011


Smallis beautiful

f small is so beautiful, why does everyone want to

grow their business? Well, perhaps not everyone

does – not by the traditional measure of turnover,

number of employees etc. anyway. According to Peter

Barnham, one of a trio of directors that formed Milton

Keynes-based large-format specialist Graphics Works at

the end of 2005, success is about growing margin and

running a small, flexible operation is key to that.

By the time you read this Graphics Works will have

moved into its third factory and grown its turnover to

£500,000. Over £100,000 has been ploughed into kit

since the formation of the company which now runs four

roll-fed Mimaki machines, an Oce Arizona 350GT and,

the newest addition, a Canon iPF800S (plus various

laminators). But it still has only five staff and though the

intention is to increase profitability, Barnham is bent on

keeping the company slim and trim.

“To grow as a business you have to be light and very

flexible – too strict a growth strategy may hamper you. I

believe it has been easier for the smaller guys to

succeed in the last two years because it’s easier to

change direction when you need to. That’s why we’ve

deliberately kept slim in terms of personnel. I’d much

rather have a few really experienced, committed and

entrepreneurial people that I pay more than have a

bigger staff that do what they think they need to do and

go home.

“I think defined job definitions within a business are a

thing of the past. Everybody these days needs to be

entrepreneurial, and that means everybody in the

organisation. My idea is to have few people, but all of

whom come up with ideas for development. My

background is in R+D and the other two directors come

from a creative background, which is perhaps why we

see it this way, but it seems to be working for us. People

within a business need to multi-skill and understand how

their input can feed into the business. Everyone here for

instance talks to clients – they have the background,

knowledge and confidence to do that and they therefore

all feed back information that will expand the company.”

That client feedback is essential to how Graphics

Works does business and to its ongoing development.

“It’s easier to build on existing customers than finding

new ones – plus you don’t want to lose those you have –

so to keep them sweet and the business moving forward

you need to keep coming up with something new and

offering them solutions they might not even realise they

need – then they will stay loyal to you.

“This means accepting that you’ll have to devote

energies to R+D, and we do. The fun for me is finding

out what a machine can do that the spec. sheet doesn’t

mention. An ideal customer is one that comes to us with

a problem and we investigate how to deliver a solution.

The first job, because of the R+D input, may not make

money, but the concept will subsequently. And that’s the

sort of work that brings in higher margins.

“Let’s be clear – we see no point in chasing turnover.

If our machines have capacity and someone comes in

with a low margin job we’ll take it but we won’t chase it.

That’s a good way of killing yourself ultimately.

“We’ve survived well during generally bad economic

times because we’ve been flexible enough to find new

solutions for customers, developed more profitable

niches [like photo printing onto acrylic and bespoke

digital wallcoverings etc.] but also because we’ve

been financially astute and reviewed how we work

with our suppliers.

“When the recession kicked in for instance, we

looked at the materials we were buying. For us 24-hour

turnaround on jobs is normal and one-to-two hours is

regular! Given that we are printing on some more

unusual substrates etc. the answer wasn’t to destock

but we negotiated on better rates with suppliers and

also made sure we went with those who were keeping

their own stock levels up and could therefore respond to

us all the quicker. Plus, those we work with are happy to

I

I THINK DEFINED

JOB DEFINITIONS

WITHIN A BUSINESS

ARE A THING OF THE

PAST. EVERYBODY

THESE DAYS NEEDS TO

BE ENTREPRENEURIAL

“”

31

WIDTHWISE 2011

supply material for R+D purposes, not all are.”

Also crucial to Graphics Works’ success has been the

company’s financial standing and ethos. “Part of the

reason we’ve done well is that when we set up the

business it was purposefully with no borrowing so that

we wouldn’t be hampered and when the economic tide

turned that stood us in good stead. That, together with

the fact that we always pay on time means we’ve had

no trouble in getting credit with the consumables

suppliers etc. On the kit front, we’ve managed to secure

any monies needed from the normal lenders.

Interestingly, we’ve found the suppliers’ own finance

houses to have been tighter than the high street banks,

some of which have also been difficult, but others have

given us the nod within a couple of hours.”

So what key messages would Barnham send out to

companies in a similar turnover bracket? Put simply,

“be flexible”.

“You have got to be in a position to be whatever your

client wants you to be, no matter how unreasonable

that might seem! There has been a lot of deskilling

within the client-base. Years ago, staff were

experienced and understood how print processes

worked. Now you’re working with people who have no

idea what they’re ordering. For instance, we had

someone asking us for bespoke wallcoverings for a

151-room hotel – they wanted delivery in four days.

People just don’t understand that producing a

massive wallcovering isn’t the same a printing off a

few business cards.

“The problem is that there’s no clear route to print

anymore, designers hand off projects to contractors

who have no interest or involvement in what they are

asking for. It used to be that a designer within an

architect would have a lot of materials knowledge. Now

they just want to sit in front of a screen and design and

don’t get excited about materials and possibilities -

which is why we encourage designers to come to us

and see for themselves what we can do. We need to

educate them about what’s achievable, and then also

put a bit more reality back into timescales.

“The print sector also needs to start making money

from pre-press again. People are frightened to charge

and so everything pre-press has been devalued – we

need to claw that back.”

Peter Barnham: runs a small company with big vision

Secrets of successLASCELLE BARROWCo-founder,Augustus MartinA lot of my success in large-formatprint has been about buying theright equipment for the business.Along with this goes avoidingbuying some of the wrongequipment! I have three principlesthat I try to stick to:- Only buy equipment where youknow you have a market. If you are buying and hoping forsales you can be sure that other people are doing so aswell.- Buy the right equipment for your customer base andworkload. Buy a machine that delivers the right quality andthe best combination of running cost, speed and machinecost for your business- Large-format is still a fast moving market. Always try tobuy equipment where the purchase is justified on the workyou actually do now, but that also has something extra tooffer. Maybe some extra width or an extra colour that willopen up new possibilities for you and your customers thatwill take your business forward.

These principles have helped me make some purchasesthat have done very well for our businesses. They havealso stopped me from making some other purchases thatwould just have contributed to the overcapacity so

prevalent in our industry.

MARK SIMPSONChairman,Simpson GroupI don’t believe the ‘secrets ofsuccess’ in the large-format printsector are that different from anyother business. The bottom lineis that you have to work hard andfocus on your business almost24/7. Yes, I even dream about

POS. If I were asked to pick out one key area to ensuresuccess it would be to cultivate an obsessive focus onyour customers and their needs. This entails gettingeveryone who works in your business to understand howthey add value to your customers. Too often in businessthere is a one size fits all mentality where customers needto fit in with the way a business operates. This approach isno longer relevant. You need to tailor your products andservices to suit the customer so making it easy to dealwith you. For example customers should be able to accessinformation and advice quickly and easily. Being able tospeak to a helpful, knowledgeable person face to face orover the phone is essential. The over use of email as aform of business communication is a curse to developingbusiness and relationships.

MICHAEL AYERSTManaging director, VGLVGL's business is dependant onoffering quality, service and value.This sounds simple but if you get itright customers will trust you. Thekey to any business success is thecustomer and a long-term loyalcustomer is the starting point forany growing business. We takequality, service and value seriouslyand we invest continuously in technology and people to achievecustomer satisfaction on a continuous basis. Behind what soundsthe most obvious statement is a lot of hard work from everyoneat VGL to avoid complacency, which, in my view, is the death of

a company.

ANTONY BAGLIONIBusiness developmentdirector, BAF GraphicsWe believe that being able to understandthe requirements of our clients andtranslate these into well thought outgraphic solutions is key to success in ourbusiness and demonstrates that we aremore than just a print company.Accurately interpreting the needs of ourclients and offering them ideas and advice

based on knowledge and experience, enables us to be able toprovide the best value to our clients.

Hand-in-hand with this knowledge we aim to offer our clients witha seamless end-to-end service that includes artworking, productionand installation. Our ultimate aim with each of our clients is tooperate as an extension of their visual communications marketingteam interpreting their concepts into graphic solutions that drawfrom our experience and the full scope of our production capability.

TIM ANDREWSManaging director,Hollywood MonsterContinuous investment in our equipmentand staff is key to our success. We haveinvested heavily in the latest technologyenabling Hollywood Monster to provide forhigh-profile clients across all sectorsincluding sports stadiums, festivals, rockand pop concerts, shopping centres andproperty developments.

We’ve worked hard to diversify and break into new marketsectors and that effort is now beginning to pay dividends. We arewinning new contracts that are providing us with excitingopportunities to develop and grow our business. More customersare recognizing and appreciating the quality of our work andHollywood Monster has gained a great reputation for deliveringprojects on budget and on time.

WIDTHWISE 2011

33

AGFA: The use of wide-format printers is now an established production process, and is becoming more focused on

applications using a growing variety of rigid and flexible materials. As a result, we are developing and building greater

versatility and productivity into our machines, based on the core technologies already accepted in this industry sector.

CANON: The wide-format market showed impressive growth during 2010, demonstrating that it is already bouncing back

from the recession – attributable in part to the rapidly expanding range of applications made possible by wide-format print

and, to the fact that more businesses are seeing the benefits offered by it.

DURST: We have seen an increase in industrialisation within the wide-format market. To remain competitive in the market

you need consistently high productivity, which requires automation and sophisticated workflow systems. Value-added

turnover can be achieved through developing new applications and specialisation in niche market areas.

EPSON: Our ink and media sales would suggest that areas of the wide-format market are still busy and that there is work

out there. That said, businesses are generally not expanding and for many, hardware replacement cycles are being

lengthened.

FUJIFILM UK: The current state of the wide-format market is buoyant. Due to the combination of a reduction in run

lengths, a growing need for variable data and more POS campaigns on a broader range of substrates, 2010 was our best

year for digital hardware sales.

HP SCITEX: In spite of the tough trading conditions, 2010 actually proved to be relatively successful for our HP Scitex

division, thanks largely to the continued interest in our latex technology, which ultimately led to a positive impact on our

overall market share position.

MIMAKI: Our continued development of new and complementary technologies ensures that even in tough economic

times we're seeing positive levels of new investment across the many sectors we work in.

OCÉ: We’re seeing consolidation. It’s like a forest fire going through the industry. While this can be devastating for some,

the stronger printers, particularly those who have already invested in new technology, are now finding space to provide more

added-value and are ready to expand as the upturn arrives.

ROLAND: Our machines are being used increasingly by users in complementary areas including industrial production,

textiles, labels, proofing and prototyping, with growing interest from the commercial print sector.

SCREEN: The wide-format market is buoyant and growing fast. Digital wide-format is unlocking potential in many markets

as more people are discovering and unlocking new applications.

34

Suppliers’viewpoint

WIDTHWISE 2011

From your viewpoint, how would yousum up the current state of thewide-format market?

The Widthwise poll purposefully surveys only print businesses involved in large-formatprint to take the temperature of the sector. But what do their suppliers make of thecurrent market? Melony Rocque-Hewitt asks three key questions of some of the mainwide-format hardware manufacturers. Here’s what they have to say…

WIDTHWISE 2011

What do you think will be the mostsignificant trends/developments inthe sector in the coming year?

35

1. Gill Mussell, Canon UK,LFP product manager2. Steve Collins, Agfa wide-format inkjet accountmanager3. Michael Lackner, Durstmarketing manager4. Mark Rowland, HP5. NickWhite, Epson salesmanager for pro-graphics

AGFA: There is considerable talk about the growth in digital textile production, and we see our Anapurna and Jeti UV-curable

production machines fulfilling this capability as well as Agfa’s dedicated fabric printer. In addition users are looking for niche markets

to expand their service offerings.

CANON: A number of businesses that have previously outsourced their large-format work or not used wide-format printing at all

are now bringing it in-house. Undoubtedly one of the reasons behind this is a need to keep a closer eye on costs, which is also

behind another important development – the introduction of pay-per-click models to the sector.

DURST:Over the next year or so we will see further advances in productivity. Such factors as fast order fulfilment, mass

customisation and print-on-demand will take on even greater importance. For the manufacturer this requires producing highly

flexible printing machines with the typical features of variable data printing and fast media change.

EPSON: The businesses that are performing best in the current climate are those that have used their expertise to extend into

new areas, such as new online photo books for example, and this trend will continue in the coming year. Conversely, some

businesses are bringing their print in-house to increase flexibility and reduce turnaround times. This is a trend that will grow

supported by easy to use and affordable hardware and software.

FUJIFILM UK:With printers needing to increase output and quality, cost per copy will play a key role as digital technology

continues to challenge a broader range of print applications and market segments including packaging and industrial. There will

also be continued investment in ink developments in order to enhance the flexibility of end-user application. UV Ink technology will

begin to move more into the traditional entry-level solvent market.

HP SCITEX:We will see an increase in the number of electronic displays used in conjunction with digitally printed graphic

displays, especially in the retail environment, as well as in public places like airports and railway stations. There will be an increasing

trend towards PSPs moving into the niche and specialist areas of print production but still retaining the capacity to produce more

generic print.

MIMAKI:Outdoor durable print capability continues to be the mainstay of our core market, but we're seeing that augmented by

dye sublimation output (which is outdoor durable in itself - just on different substrates) and LED UV technologies. We’re expecting

the flag, fabric POS and event branding sector to continue to expand, allowing us to, at long last, catch up the continental European

market. Green issues will remain at the fore.

OCÉ: As consolidation continues, companies are looking to partner with organisations that can help them add value to their

businesses and support them for the long term, enabling customers to focus on being creative. We are seeing that support services

are as important as the equipment choice, because if a machine is down it costs far more than the savings people often think they

are getting.

ROLAND:We’re experiencing a tremendous upsurge in demand for more affordable production units that can be used by

experienced and new users of professional inkjet equipment. As a result, we’re putting our wide-format expertise into desktop

solutions that bring our advanced technologies to a very broad spectrum of end customers.

SCREEN: You will see more wide-format companies starting to diversify to offer a range of high-value products, and carve out

profitable niches for themselves in areas such as office and home decor, small-format personalised gifts, signage and decals etc.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

36

WIDTHWISE 2011

AGFA: We are seeing greater emphasis on workflow requirements. Companies are investing in our wide-format

printers as we are able to support businesses of all sizes that need to offer accurate colour managed output.

Throughput efficiency is also important, and the increase in popularity of the Agfa M-Press Tiger is testimony to how

we are meeting this requirement.

CANON: Customers are telling us that they need to keep a really close eye on what every print costs, how it is

used and what return it generates. This is a need that wide-format digital print is particularly well positioned to

respond to. For instance, in response to customer demand Canon has recently developed Total Service Care, a pay-

per-click model for large-format print.

DURST: One of the key issues will be the greater importance placed on green products. Retailers and brands will

demand greener products and smaller carbon footprints, requiring the use of environmentally friendly media and inks,

with low toxicity, free of VOCs and recyclable.

EPSON: A key issue for businesses during the current economic situation is to find enough work. This will result in

flexible printers that can deliver profitable business over multiple applications remaining solidly in demand.

FUJIFILM UK: Key issues will be quality versus output and cost per copy. ’Digital awareness’ and ‘education’ will

also be buzzwords, as will discussion on the availability of finance.

HP SCITEX: We envisage the acceleration in the replacement of solvent technologies by either UV inks or latex

inks – the range of solutions now available using these two technologies makes solvent an increasingly redundant

option. The ‘green’ factor should not be under estimated either. Successful PSPs will need to offer clients printed

output that helps reduce the impact on the environment.

MIMAKI: The (cap)ability to diversify is becoming ever more important. Being able to produce new, exciting and

lucrative product lines is a sure-fire way to prevent customers from straying. Answering 'yes' to a request means the

customer is less likely to look elsewhere, so ensuring your digital print arsenal contains hardware capable of

producing the broadest possible range of products is an easy way to put this in place.

OCÉ: Print companies need to choose their printer supplier carefully and think of it as an ongoing long-term

partnership. We are working with many of our existing customers to upgrade them to a faster system. Companies that

have invested in the right systems and have a solid business plus the right skills will be in a stronger position to grow

their business.

ROLAND: People want versatility at an affordable price, and our new desktop solutions complement Roland’s

wide-format systems. Users need the ability to produce more than just print — they want tactile finishes and special

effects, too.

SCREEN: Companies need to be looking for better than standard quality and increased flexibility and functionality

from their print systems. As time passes the quality expectation in the general market will increase, so it is important

to factor this into your thinking when investing in a device that you may well be using for three to five years.

What do you think will be the key

issue for wide-format digital print

in the future?

6. Bui Burke, ScreenUK salesmanager

7. Duncan Jefferies, HybridServices (distributor forMimaki)

marketingmanager8. Brett Newman, RolandDG

technical director9. NigelMcNae, FujifilmUK

national salesmanager, screenandwide-format inkjet

10. Dominic Fahy, OcéUKbusiness group director, imaging

supplies and display graphics

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

he topic of sustainability has inspired hundreds of

conferences, thousands of regulations and

millions of speeches. So it comes as something

of a shock to discover – from question 32 in the 2011 Image

Reports Widthwise survey – that only 18% of respondents

have environmental accreditation. That failure is put in

context when you consider question 33: only 4% of

respondents said most clients asked about accreditation,

while 63% said customers never asked.

From these stats, it would be easy to conclude that wide-

format printers and their customers are refusing to recognise

the significant, radical changes that lie ahead. Easy but

wrong. In answer to Question 31 – how important is it to offer

green options? – 59% of respondents said it was more

important than two years ago, while 14% said the issue was

still important. As you might expect, the bigger the printer

the more weight was given to the environment, with seven

out of ten businesses with a turnover of £2m or more saying

green options had moved up the agenda.

The charitable conclusion to be drawn from all this data is

probably that most printers are more focused on offering

green options than pressing for a certificate to prove their

credentials. That is not a stupid view – few of us judge a

company on the quantity or quality of the certificates in their

lobby. But it may soon prove untenable, especially for

printers who are supplying publicly quoted companies or

organisations in the public sector. As these groups are hardly

short of potential suppliers, they could simplify their

procurement process with one box-ticking exercise vetoing

any supplier who hadn’t, for example, met a standard like

ISO 14000/14001. The more high profile a brand, the more

likely the company is to declare that it only hires ‘green

printers’ – whatever that might mean. This line of thinking

may explain why the poll shows that 48/6% of printers with

sales of £2m or over do have environmental accreditation,

compared to just 6.2% for businesses with a turnover of

£500,000 or less

There is a growing pressure on big companies,

especially retailers– which buy a lot of wide-format print –

to environmentally audit their entire supply chain. This

pressure was sparked by a few scandals where well-

known corporations were revealed to be using child

labour or running sweatshops. But as the pressure has

grown, the demands have widened and many global

businesses, desperate to protect their brand image by

being good corporate citizens, are becoming much more

vigilant about their supply chains.

In Wal-Mart’s 2010 sustainability report, the retail giant

(which owns Asda) says: “When we launched our

sustainability programme we set goals to guide our efforts to

become a more responsible company. We would: be

supplied 100% by renewable energy, create zero waste and

sell products that sustain people and the environment. In

updating our goals, we turned the focus to increasing the

transparency of our supply chain. To know the true impact

of our business, we need to look at were products are

sourced and manufactured, how they’re shipped and

packaged, how they are used and what happens to the

product when it’s disposed”.

If any printer was in doubt about what they need to focus

on to green up their act, the Wal-Mart statement gives a

clear guide. It’s not just about what substrates or inks you

use, it’s about everything: the waste you produce, the energy

you use, the way you transport your product and even what

actions you take to offset the environmental consequences

of your business. Where Wal-Mart has led, many companies

– not just in retail – will surely follow. Clearly, the 25% of

printers who, in response to Question 31, denied that

environmental issues were of any importance are probably in

for a rude awakening.

So what should wide-format printers do? The obvious

place to start is with an environmental audit of your own.

This should be brutally honest so you have a truly accurate

picture. Sustainability can be a vague, almost opaque term

so be sure to define your terms clearly, explaining what

sustainability means for your business, why its important and

who it is important for. You can then – as Wal-Mart did – set

goals and targets to guide your policies over the next few

years. (And one of those targets should be achieving some

kind of accreditation.) No company can transform its carbon

footprint overnight. Indeed, customers would be suspicious if

you did. Suppliers can help, both with specific products –

HP, for example, has developed a carbon footprint calculator

– and general advice on best practice.

Doing the audit, defining your strategy, these are the

glamorous bits. But many attempts to make business

greener go awry because they aren’t monitored properly. The

best way to ensure you stay on course is to give a senior

manager, with direct access to the managing director,

responsibility for the programme, ensuring that actual gains

match projected targets – and raising the alarm if they don’t.

This manager should also be responsible for spreading the

38

sustainabilityShould we be looking at the likes of Wal-Mart’s programme?

WIDTHWISE 2011

T

WIDTHWISE 2011

More important thantwo years ago – 59%

Less important thantwo years ago – 9%

No shift - not important – 18%

No shift - important – 14%

How important is it to offer ‘green’ options these days?

No – 68%

Yes – 18%

Plan to – 14%

Plan to

No

Yes

Up to £500,000 £500,000 - £2m £2m+0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120

11.9% 16.7%

66.7%

16.7%

48.6%

32.4%

18.9%

81.2%

6.9%

%o

fre

spo

nd

an

ts

None – 63%Some – 33%

Most – 4%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

80.2%

45.8%33.3%

54.5%

12.1%

52.1%

2.1%17.8%2.0%

None

Some

Most

Up to £500,000 £500,000 - £2m £2m+

Do clients ask for environmental accreditation?

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

No shift - not important

No shift - important

Less important than two years ago

More important than two years ago

26%

12%6%

56%

Up to £500,000 £500,000 - £2m £2m+

8%

17%

19%

56%71%

5%16%

8%

%o

fre

spo

nd

an

ts

39

good news when landmarks are passed. Too many bold

attempts to make businesses sustainable peter out, after a

few months, into notices on walls telling customers how

many gallons of water or tonnes of paper have been saved.

That audit might help you educate your customers. Not

every buyer of wide-format print is as ambitious as Wal-Mart.

Many pay lip service, deterred by misperceptions about the

costs. As the Norwich wide-format printer Repro Arts has

pointed out, “People may think that price is reason enough to

look the other way when buying eco-friendly and stick to

cheap, old-fashioned plastics and PVC products. But with

more people buying into the green market, prices are coming

down.” Indeed some mass-produced environmental products

from suppliers like Dufaylite are cheaper than PVC. At a time

when there is relentless pressure on costs, what’s good for

the environment can often be good for the bottom line.

So what, you might ask, could going green do for your

business? Not much really. Just deepen your relationship

with your customers, grow revenue, reduce your costs and

improve the working environment. The excuse that you’re too

busy to think about green issues at the moment looks less

convincing than ever.

Overall response

Overall response

Overall response

Response by company size



Do you have environmental accreditation?

Define your termsThere are many ways a business can be good or great so be clear which kind of greatness you seek. For some, longevity orconsistent profitability are paramount. Others seek glory or influence. Reviewing Jim Collins’ book ‘Good To Great’, Peterssaid: “Some companies Jim has chosen have performed well but haven’t led anybody anywhere. I don’t give a damn whereMicrosoft is 50 years from now. But Microsoft set the agenda in the world’s most important industry at a critical time and

that to me is leadership, not the fact that you are able to stay alive until your beard is 200 feet long.”The choice between being the new Microsoft and a very long beard sounds simple but each managing director will weight

influence and longevity differently and that weighting should shape your strategy.

Decide why you’re in businessThe obvious answer is to make money. But successful companies – from Apple to HP and Virgin – have a culture definedby something more than profit. The right ideology can inspire staff. You don’t need a fancy mission statement. At HP, theideology, as defined by founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard, consisted of five simple principles, the last of which wastwo words: “Integrity, period”.

Make good decisionsSounds trite doesn’t it? But if your decision-making is flawed, you’re less likely to hire the right people, buy the righttechnology or service customers. Think of the last ten major decisions your company has made. How successful werethey? What would you have done differently? And were decisions taken after different views were aired and debated?

Many bad decisions are driven by confirmation bias. We are hard-wired to believe evidence that supports our view andoften dismiss contradictory data without even realising it. Confirmation bias – and groupthink, the term for our tendency to gravitate toa consensus no matter how absurd it might be – still blight many organisations. Yet research has shown that even a lone idiotchallenging a consensus will lead to a better decision. Imagine what a difference intelligent, open debate might make.

Stay humbleThe cult of the rock star CEO is so powerful we assume they should all be as visionary as Steve Jobs or as arrogant as SirAlan Sugar. Yet they are not your only role models. Gary C. Kelly, the new CEO of Southwest Airlines, recently definedleadership saying: “You need to be a good person and genuinely feel joy at other people’s success, and not be so inwardlooking. An ideal leader is described by other people as someone who convinces them he cares about them.”

Bosses don’t always know best, so when your business faces an important strategic choice don’t preface the meeting with a clearstatement of your views.

The lives of the great business leaders share one painful recurring theme: like rock stars, CEOs suffer from built-in obsolescence.How they prepare for that – by building the right team or planning succession – is their ultimate test. Many studies show that firmsthat grow their own management are likely to outperform those who import leaders.

If, as Collins says, the ability to embrace change defines a great business, your company is more likely to adapt and evolve if yourstrategy is driven by debate, not ego.

The clinching argument for humility is the fall of Enron. That’s what happens when your managers really believe they are “thesmartest guys in the room”. Hubris is always expensive in the long run.

42

How good isyour company?

n Hollywood, they say a good director sometimesmakes a bad movie but a bad director never makesa good movie. Business isn’t quite that simple. Badcompanies can have a good idea that gives them an

edge, but in the long run their inferior management willstill be their downfall.Business is so volatile in the 21st century that today’s

winners can be tomorrow’s losers. Yet a critical appraisal

of the works of such management gurus as Jim Collins,Tom Peters, and Peter Drucker suggests that successful,enduring businesses share certain qualities. True, sometraits are incredibly generic: Collins’ advice to “hire goodpeople” will only come as a revelation to managers whohave consistently appointed jerks. With such caveats inmind, let’s explore the characteristics of an enduringbusiness.

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Serve yourcustomersFor Peter Drucker, this was a company’sprimary responsibility. Profits are an

essential condition of the company’s continued existence but theygenerally follow if you are servicing customers. The designthinking revolution – in which designers changed their customers’thinking (and increased their own value) by studying the enduser’s needs – is a case in point. The most compelling information you can give your customers is to tell them something they don’tknow about their customers.

Trust your passionTom Peters and Collins often differ but agree on the power of passion. Peters says: “All the strategy guys talkwonderfully about these ideas and skip over the incredibly boring part – people.” Collins thinks passion canbe quiet, Peters prefers an upfront leader who thrives on chaos: “Wouldn’t you like to think a quiet leader

would lead you to the promised land? That’s total, utter bull.” The key is that passion exists and spreads beyond the boardroom.

Ask questionsNew bosses often arrive with inspiring mission statements. But when Darwin Smith took over a famous, butmediocre corporate giant called Kimberly-Clark in 1971, he didn’t have a mission – he just asked questions.What could the company be the best at? What was it especially passionate about? How could it improve itsnumbers? The questions helped Smith transform Kimberly-Clark. His brave decision to sell paper mills and

bet on an emerging product called Kleenex now looks like genius. Smith was practicing what Drucker called “plannedabandonment”, recognising that yesterday’s successes were no longer useful.

Balance discipline and creativityFew companies have managed the tension between individual innovation and systematic organisation aswell as 3M under William McKnight, president from 1929 till 1948, who helped make innovation arepeatable, systematic process. He gave staff scope to think but created enough barriers to ensure that onlythe best ideas – like Post It – survived. McKnight proved that quality, not quantity, of ideas was paramount.

Be realistic about technologyThe new economy has led many to overestimate the power of technology. When Collins studied businessesthat had been hailed as technological pioneers he found “these companies dwelled little on technology as akey variable”. He concluded that technology couldn’t make a bad company good, it just accelerated thegoodness that already existed.

Create a cash generating moatAmerican billionaire Warren Buffett asks two questions when analysing a potential acquisition. Does it

have a moat (a defensible competitive advantage)? Does it consistently generate cash? They are bothuseful, common sense ways of appraising your company. If you don’t have a moat, could you create one –and generate more cash? These are not questions you read in many business bestsellers but the answerscould profoundly impact your company.

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ife’s a journey, not a destination! Never has this

popular nugget of self-help advice been so

appropriate. With people spending an apparent

70% of their time out of their home it’s not surprising that

out-of-home advertising is one of the fastest growing

traditional advertising mediums in the UK.

Unlike with any other medium you don’t have to tune in,

turn it on, dial up or turn the page to see it, it’s just there for

free, incidental and unavoidable and with the advent of

mobile marketing, the out-of-home space is becoming even

more dynamic.

Planning and buying manager Paula Evans at Transport

Media, the Manchester-based specialist ‘out-of-home’

planning and buying agency, believes that digital wide-format

printing has been instrumental in the rise of resurrecting

dead space – the time it takes to get from A to B, now

enticingly known the Third Space.

“Digital wide-format printing has allowed advertisers to be

far more flexible, vibrant and creative. It has really raised the

bar on quality and therefore client confidence levels. We

know for example, we can match any pantone or special

colour, which in the past would have been a problem. I can’t

stress how important accurate colour representation is when

it comes to branding and logo prints,” she says.

“From a planning perspective, wide-format digital printing

has substantially raised the bar on quality as well as

durability issues. A lot of this has to do with advances in

substrates, materials and the inks used. For example, vehicle

wrapping can now take the daily wear and tear of city life,

not to mention the forces of nature. Our clients get far more

value for money. Campaigns look good for longer.

“Digital printing has made everything even more efficient -

the fact that we can now print on one high quality vinyl skin

rather than on split paper sections makes everything look so

much better and removes any installation errors,” she adds.

In her ten-year career as a planner, Evans has witnessed a

plethora of new applications that in the past weren’t even on

the menu. She also believes it is far easier to create

integrated media campaigns, as print technology makes it

easier to adapt imagery from different media channels.

A trend for bling, says Evans is one of the more noticeable

trends arising within the last 18 months. “Print that shimmers

or is a good and cost-effective alternative to

electroluminescent and is very popular,” she states.

In addition to this, a tendency to enhance print with sound

and interactivity is growing. Bus shelters for example, have

become complete environments that can incorporate sound

effects, or even contain actual panels that act like vending

machines. “All these add-ons to print really enhance the

experience,” says Evans.

While Evans agrees that moving imagery is currently

biased to London other key city centres such as

Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow also use screens,

static print is still dominant, and as far as the regions are

concerned print still makes up 95% of campaigns.

“There is no doubt mobile interaction is on the rise but

there will always be a place for static print,” she says. “Media

owners have invested heavily in making out of door spaces

attractive to brands. The versatility of inks, the on-going

developments in substrates all keep pushing the boundaries

of creativity which in turn continues to keep print strong and

relevant.”

www.transportmedia.co.uk

46

WIDTHWISE 2011

LPauls Evans ofTransport Media

THE VERSATILITY OF

INKS, THE ON-GOING

DEVELOPMENTS IN

SUBSTRATES ALL KEEP

PUSHING THE

BOUNDARIES OF

CREATIVITY WHICH IN

TURN CONTINUES TO KEEP

PRINT STRONG AND

RELEVANT

“

”

The LastWord

Documents

WidthWise 2011