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The UK print media industry saw an upturn in sales for 2004 after two years of negative growth. The approximately 22.5 billion Euro (26.79 billion US-Dollars) in UK print shop sales represents an increase of 2.5 percent.

Heidelberg News spoke to George Clarke, Head of Heidelberg Graphic Equipment Ltd. in the UK, about the current situation and prospects for print shops.

Mr. Clarke, give our readers an impression of the printing industry in the UK. How is the market made up?
George Clarke: The printing industry is part of the print, publishing and paper sector, which is the fifth largest branch of the UK economy. BPIF (British Printing Industries Federation) claim that some 185,000 people work here in 12,000 print shops. Yet only 550 of these businesses employ more than 50 staff - in other words, print shops with less than 20 employees make up 90 percent of the total sector. Although the number of print shops and the average number of employees per printshop have fallen in the last few years, the volume of printed sheets has remained the same or even increased. So today's print shops are highly productive.

And what products do they primarily produce?
George Clarke: According to the latest figures we have from BPIF, advertising literature constitutes the major share of sales. Non-advertising books, brochures, leaf lets, etc. lag some way behind. Sales for the next three, smaller sectors, "programs, tickets, etc," "periodicals," and "packaging" together match those for advertising material by itself.

Are these products destined principally for the home market or are they exported?
George Clarke: Since different bases are used for recording and collecting data, and the data itself is not up-to-date, it's hard to make a really informed comment on this point. But I can give you a few indications. In 2003, with total sales of 21.7 billion Euro (25.85 billion US-Dollars), print products worth 3.5 billion Euro (4.17 billion US-Dollars) were exported, resulting in an export surplus of around 900 million Euro (1.07 billion US-Dollars). The foreign trade balance for UK industry in 2003 hadn't been as strong in 12 years.

How has the market developed over recent years?
George Clarke: The UK print market certainly hasn't developed any more than in other industrial nations but it does have a couple of special features. Not least because the recession here took hold earlier than on other western markets. This recession resulted in substantial, wide-ranging cuts and persisted over a long period. As a consequence, printers here had to adapt to a changed climate relatively quickly and, in the long term, that meant streamlining their businesses, making them more efficient and demand-driven. This led to a kind of "industrialization" that also extended to smaller businesses. Price and time constraints have increased to such an extent over recent years that classic, virtually "stand-alone" family businesses find it much more difficult to make their mark than previously. Given typical profitability rates of 3.2 to 4.3 percent in the sector, printers had to boost their productivity, cut costs, increase sales, and offer customers added value just to be able to keep up decent margins.

You can download the complete interview on the top right-hand side.