November 2020

Confidence improved as output and orders rallied in Q3

Unfortunately road to recover blocked in Q4.

UK printing and printed packaging has rebounded from the second quarter's record low - it just hasn't bounced back high enough yet. The Covid-19 outbreak hit at the end of Q1, Q2 bore the brunt of the impact and Q3 has exhibited a recovery; of sorts. Forecasts for Q4 suggest that, in light of the Covid-19 resurgence, enforced regional lockdowns and climaxing Brexit uncertainty, the path ahead will now take a dip for the worse and risk turning the recovery "V" in to a "W".

The latest Printing Outlook survey reveals that 35% of printers managed to increase their output levels in the third quarter of 2020. However, fewer (22%) were able to hold output steady, and 43% were adversely affected by a decline in output. The resulting balance (the difference between the ups and the downs) was -8, much improved from the -59 reported in Q2 but below the Q3 forecast (+7) and still in the negative zone (meaning more companies have reported a decline rather than an improvement).