Printing Outlook is the BPIF's quarterly printing industry trends survey, compiled primarily from an online survey of BPIF members. It covers topics such as: your top business concerns, orders, output, price levels, capacity, costs, margins, investment, pay reviews, productivity, late payment and payment terms, public sector procurement, Web-to-print and paper & board prices and supply.
We are very pleased to continue our partnership with Canon, we'd like to thank Canon for their support - this will ensure all survey respondents receive a printed copy of Printing Outlook.
As well as reporting on the BPIF's latest quarterly survey of trends in the printing industry, Printing Outlook now incorporates:
- UK headline economic data
- CBI forecasts and assessment
- Paper and board consumption statistics from the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) and sector insight from EMGE (paper industry consultants)
- Printing Ink sales volumes and values from the British Coatings Federation (BCF)
- Energy sector commentary from Schneider Electric
- The latest print and printed packaging Red Flag Statistics and Financial Health statistics compiled especially for the BPIF by Red Flag Alert and Begbies Traynor
- Insolvency statistics for the printing sector
- Advertising sector data and analysis from the Advertising Association / Warc Expenditure Report and the IPA Bellwether Report
Printing Outlook is widely reported in the trade press, and feeds into the Bank of England and their provision of data to the Monetary Policy Committee. It is required reading for many suppliers to and investors in the industry, and is used by the BPIF to help represent the interests of our industry to other trade associations, the CBI, Government and the European and worldwide printing industries.
BPIF members can download the full report below; Printing Outlook press releases are available here.
UK PRINTING SUBDUED IN Q4 AS OUTPUT AND ORDERS UNDERPERFORM - CONFIDENCE IS DEPRESSED BUT END TO COST CRISIS AHEAD
Growth in output and orders was marginally positive in Q4 as the reality for performance in the UK printing and printed packaging industry turned out close to the forecasts provided in the previous quarter. The expectation for Q1 is for slight performance improvement to be realised. Despite heightened economic and political uncertainties, extreme energy cost shocks, and high inflation - many firms have been able to find some stability in their own performance. However, a significant minority of companies have not been able to prevent a contraction in their business.
The latest Printing Outlook survey reveals that 33% of printers managed to increase their output levels in the final quarter of 2022, and 29% experienced a decline in their output levels. The resulting balance (the difference between the ups and the downs) was +4, well below Q3, but just above the Q4 forecast.

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