What to Expect from the Commercial Printing Industry in 2018

Will the industry be able to adapt to changing technologies?  The commercial printing industry grew by 1% in 2017. This is a promising sign as an indication the industry is moving in the right direction. However, with the immense challenges that the industry is facing to maintain relevancy, new technologies must be embraced otherwise the big companies could lose their market share to digital equivalents.

The Industry Can't Be Afraid of Change

For generations, the commercial print industry has relied on traditional printed business assets such as:

• Business cards
• Direct mail flyers and advertisements
• Newspapers
• Textiles

However, more and more businesses are starting to rely exclusively on digital advertising and social media to reach their customers. With this in mind, the commercial printing industry needs to find new ways to push technology further to bring innovative solutions to their customers.

Make Way for 3D Printing

Industry market research reporting firm, IDC, forecasts that the 3D printing sector will grow by nearly $12 billion in 2018 from investments made by commercial printing titans. The major emphasis will be discrete manufacturing with some interest in medical-based printing such as bioprinting and regenerative medicine.

With this in mind, let's take a look back at printing equipment finance in 2017. Who were the most prominent buyers and who were the most significant financiers? Industry reporting firm EDA has the answers.

The Prominent Buyers

• Marketing Instincts California Epson 4
• School of Visual Arts New York Epson 3
• GameTime Wraps Arkansas HP 3
• RR Donnelley & Sons Delaware KBA 3
• Quality Printing Massachusetts Ploar 2

From the list above, we can see the company, their geographic location, along with the new units that were financed in November 2017. As you can see, most of these companies are household names in the printing and technology sectors with a few wildcards thrown in as well.

Where Did They Secure Financing?

The same EDA report also lists the top twenty financing companies for the same month of November 2017 at the following:

• GENEVA CAPITAL 17
• T C F EQT FIN INC 11
• HEIDELBERG USA INC 8
• BOBST NORTH AMER INC 5

Tied for 5th

• C I T BANK 4
• KBA NORTH AMERICA 4
• PNC EQUIPMENT FINANCE 4
• MACDERMID PRINTING SOLUTIONS 4
• WELLS FARGO EQUIPMENT FINANCE 4

It's interesting to note that five companies tied for fifth place on this list, each financing four units to buyers. Of this top of the rank list, all of these companies combined for 65.6% of all units financed in November 2017. Also, Geneva Capital alone financed enough equipment to account for 18.3% of the total.

Though traditional business asset printing may be on the decline, with booms in manufacturing many experts are forecasting that traditional printing might be able to stick around a little longer. As emerging economies begin to kick-start their manufacturing sectors, they're in need of package printing from commercial printing equipment as well as other value-adding services.

With the adoption of new technologies and the addition of commercial printing to the manufacturing sectors of emerging nations, the commercial printing industry might be ready to enter a new era in 2018.