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.
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.
CONFIDENCE IMPROVED AS OUTPUT AND ORDERS RALLIED IN Q3 - UNFORTUNATELY ROAD TO RECOVERY 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).

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