NPES Industry Summit Portrays a Healthy Industry with Global Growth
April 2007
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RESTON, Va.—The first NPES Industry Summit, held recently in Chicago, provided an optimistic view of print’s current and future prospects and a preview of the world’s most promising growth markets for the years ahead.
The Summit, presented by NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies, combined the 26th edition of the PRINT OUTLOOK economic forecasting conference with the NPES Spring Conference and the Spring meeting of PRIMIR(SM), the Print Industries Market Information and Research Organization.
“Bringing the annual PRINT OUTLOOK together with the PRIMIR Spring Meeting and the NPES Spring Conference in a central locale like Chicago provided a powerful return on investment for attendees, exceeding what any one of the individual conferences could hope to provide alone,” said NPES President Ralph Nappi. “Evaluations from our members confirm the concept has real merit,” Nappi continued. “The benefits of cross pollinating our industry’s best leaders and thinkers in a format like the NPES Industry Summit provide great strategic and operational benefits for those participating.”
PRINT OUTLOOK, which has previously been held in December in Washington, D.C., delivered a day-and-a-half review of how print is performing in the communications marketplace today and what lies ahead, both for the industry and for the national economy. A series of speakers concurred that sustained economic growth and smart adoption of technologies to create new value-added services have helped put the U.S. printing industry in its strongest position in many years. Opening PRINT OUTLOOK, NPES Vice President William K. “Kip” Smythe commented, “I don’t think I have been this optimistic in at least 15 years. The last time we met, we had seen from 2004 that it looked like the industry was starting to come back. Now, it is clear we have had sustained growth.”
Ronnie Davis, chief economist at PIA/GATF, agreed, noting that U.S. printers’ sales reached $171 billion in 2006, a gain of 3.3 percent over the previous year and a major rebound from a low point of about $156 billion in 2002.
Davis said PIA/GATF forecasts increases of about 1.5 percent in 2007 and 2.5 percent in 2008. Significant growth is coming from new digital and “ancillary” services printers are adding to their portfolios, Davis said, adding, “This is still an opportunity industry.”
Joseph Truncale, president of NAPL, reported that “sales grew at their fastest rate in eight years in 2006 and will continue to grow, although at a noticeably slower pace, in 2007. Volume has finally regained pre-recession levels, and we’ve even regained some pricing power and profitability.” He also described how successful printers are adapting their businesses to structural change in the industry, along with some of the barriers that still remain, including the need to develop “a whole skill set for the sales force” in many companies.
The Summit, presented by NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies, combined the 26th edition of the PRINT OUTLOOK economic forecasting conference with the NPES Spring Conference and the Spring meeting of PRIMIR(SM), the Print Industries Market Information and Research Organization.
“Bringing the annual PRINT OUTLOOK together with the PRIMIR Spring Meeting and the NPES Spring Conference in a central locale like Chicago provided a powerful return on investment for attendees, exceeding what any one of the individual conferences could hope to provide alone,” said NPES President Ralph Nappi. “Evaluations from our members confirm the concept has real merit,” Nappi continued. “The benefits of cross pollinating our industry’s best leaders and thinkers in a format like the NPES Industry Summit provide great strategic and operational benefits for those participating.”
PRINT OUTLOOK, which has previously been held in December in Washington, D.C., delivered a day-and-a-half review of how print is performing in the communications marketplace today and what lies ahead, both for the industry and for the national economy. A series of speakers concurred that sustained economic growth and smart adoption of technologies to create new value-added services have helped put the U.S. printing industry in its strongest position in many years. Opening PRINT OUTLOOK, NPES Vice President William K. “Kip” Smythe commented, “I don’t think I have been this optimistic in at least 15 years. The last time we met, we had seen from 2004 that it looked like the industry was starting to come back. Now, it is clear we have had sustained growth.”
Ronnie Davis, chief economist at PIA/GATF, agreed, noting that U.S. printers’ sales reached $171 billion in 2006, a gain of 3.3 percent over the previous year and a major rebound from a low point of about $156 billion in 2002.
Davis said PIA/GATF forecasts increases of about 1.5 percent in 2007 and 2.5 percent in 2008. Significant growth is coming from new digital and “ancillary” services printers are adding to their portfolios, Davis said, adding, “This is still an opportunity industry.”
Joseph Truncale, president of NAPL, reported that “sales grew at their fastest rate in eight years in 2006 and will continue to grow, although at a noticeably slower pace, in 2007. Volume has finally regained pre-recession levels, and we’ve even regained some pricing power and profitability.” He also described how successful printers are adapting their businesses to structural change in the industry, along with some of the barriers that still remain, including the need to develop “a whole skill set for the sales force” in many companies.
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