In a commentary last week called "Consolidation: Not the Whole Story",
Andrew D. Paparozzi, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, and Joe
Vincenzino, Senior Economist, of the National Association for Printing
Leadership (NAPL; East Rutherford, New Jersey) point out that in the last
several years, the printing industry has seen an average of 1,300 start-ups
annually. They also rightfully
lament the fact that, although establishment sources provide such head counts,
they don’t furnish any additional information on the types of companies
entering the industry.
In this context Mr.
Paparozzi and Mr. Vincenzino admonish printers:
Remember,
the companies that are entering the commercial printing industry every year are
starting with a clean slate—i.e., without the legacy equipment, work habits,
and mindsets that can limit flexibility. They’re coming in with a different
workforce, with a different, more relevant set of skills. They don’t have the
troublesome issue of long-term, loyal employees whose skill sets don’t quite
match the direction on which the company is embarking—new entrants are hiring
the skills they need at the start.
Thus,
while we may pick up business from the printer that as shut its doors, don’t
ignore the rest of the story—a new breed of nimble and tough competitors are
entering the industry. Furthermore, don’t be lulled into a false sense of
security because new entrants tend to be smaller companies. Smaller companies
grow—and the good ones grow rapidly.
From my
perspective as a printing-industry journalist and commentator, I’m most
interested in investigating and spreading the word about the specifics of all
those newfangled types of equipment, workforces, habits, and attitudes. So now or at any future point, please
don’t hesitate to forward me links and details about any new “nimble and tough”
start-ups that you uncover or know.
http://napl.org/andrew-paparozzi/
Instead, my congratulations go out to all the printers and their creative teams around the world who have proven themselves astute, organized, and agile enough to capitalize on this temporary windfall--an opportunity comprising such diverse products as advertising and marketing collateral, books, labels, packaging, signs, and point-of-purchase displays--which forecasters have conservatively valued at around 3 billion pounds for the British national economy alone.
About a year ago, I interviewed Simon
Healy (right), chairman of Mediaware Digital (Dublin, Ireland), about his company’s
early adoption of Xerox’s toner-based Gallop production line to produce
short-run folding cartons in multiple languages for Microsoft software (below left). 
In my resulting article, he explains how
toner packaging provides multiple solutions for the manufacturer’s needs,
including small orders for new global niche markets and introducing new brands,
inventory micromanagement, and agile on-demand Web-to-print applications. 