There’s Always Room for Growth
When wide-format printing digital color printing systems were first introduced, technology companies and analysts boldly predicted that wide-format digital printing would have a profound impact on many types and sizes of businesses. As digital printing systems have proliferated and become more powerful, many of these predictions are coming true.
Although the sign and display markets for wide-format printing have matured, new industrial printing systems have been developed to efficiently produce high volumes of customized labels, packaging, textiles, decor, building materials, and other manufactured products.
How Wide-Format Businesses Evolved
In less than 40 years, large-format digital color printing advanced from being an innovative form of printing engineering drawings and satellite imagery to a widely used method of producing indoor and outdoor signs, displays, event graphics, and branded environments.
The earliest wide-format digital color printers in the 1990s enabled entrepreneurs to test possible new applications for short runs of large, full-color prints.
Owners of commercial photo labs, reprography businesses, prepress service bureaus, and large-format screen printing presses tested whether the first low-speed, low-resolution wide-format digital color printers could be used to produce sign and display graphics.
The prepress service bureaus and commercial photo labs were eager to replace sales lost to digital imaging and desktop publishing. Entrepreneurs with backgrounds in photography and film separations for commercial printing offered fine art reproduction, trade-show graphics, backlit retail displays, point-of-purchase signs, proofs, and package prototypes..
Companies with large-format screen-printing presses were encouraged to digitally produce outdoor applications such as full-color billboards, bus wraps, and fleet markings.
As wide-format technology improved and initial production issues were resolved, innovative entrepreneurs built thriving new businesses by growing the demand for short-run wide-format graphics. As the demand grew, equipment manufacturers increased the speed and versatility of their devices, including roll-to-roll models, flatbeds. and hybrid models that could print on flexible or rigid substrates.
In the 2010s, commercial printing companies started expanding into wide-format graphics to replace print-production revenues lost to the growth of digital marketing and publishing.
Some commercial print business owners acquired or merged with the wide-format businesses entrepreneurs founded in the 1990s.
Today, the annual growth of the large-format sign and display business has been slowed, partly because of the sheer number of businesses equipped with wide-format printing devices. Many corporate print shops and creative-services agencies produce simple, short-run, wide-format graphics in house
The installation of digital signage at events, in stores, and in out-of-home advertising has also affected the demand for printed signs and displays. High-res digital displays are now available to show digitally created art in homes and galleries.
Statistics Confirm Changes in the Market
In a WhatTheyThink webinar on “The Graying of Wide-Format,” WhatTheyThink managing editor Richard Romano and IDC research director Tim Greene discussed research that confirms that wide-format sign and display graphics printing is a mature market.
Wide-format printing is no longer the most attractive option for commercial printing companies and sign shops to grow their businesses. WhatTheyThink research shows that between 2016 and 2021, the number of commercial printing companies that view adding wide-format printing capabilities as a sales opportunity fell from 17% to 10%.
From 2019 to 2021, the number of commercial print shops that were planning to add wide-format printing services over the next 18-24 months fell from 8% to 5% and the number of commercial printing companies that have no plans to add wide-format printing rose from 30% to 35%
Greene attributes some of this drop-off to the increased number of wholesale/trade large-format graphics printers that have become extremely efficient in handling and processing online orders for all types of graphics.The trade shops can produce work faster, better, and cheaper than large-format printing newcomers.
So, outsourcing partners are readily available to commercial print shops that don’t want to try to master the intricacies of wide-format printing. In the WhatTheyThink research, the number of commercial printing companies that currently outsource or plan to outsource wide-format graphics jobs rose from 8% in 2019 to 13% in 2021.
Romano observed that while fewer commercial printing companies are migrating into wide-format graphics printing, the enterprises that specialize in wide-format printing have started acquiring narrow-format digital presses to handle the short runs of business cards, direct mail postcards, and sell sheets that their wide-format customers require.
Plenty of non-signage opportunities exist for users of wide-format and industrial digital printing technologies. IDC Research conducted in August 2021 showed that while 80% of all print shops that are considering new opportunities, large-format sign and graphics printing ranked fourth (32%) behind adding 3D printing services (43%), T-shirts/Direct-to-garment Printing (37%), and Design Services (36%).
Some of the other potential new print market opportunities include: digital signage/digital display assembly, package printing, label printing, and interior decor applications.
Romano believes that “Packaging is now the high-growth sector of the printing market, sort of like wide-format was 10 years ago.”
Many commercial print shops already use their wide-format printers to produce short runs of corrugated packaging and labels for start-ups and local businesses.
For companies already operating in the corrugated packaging market, EFI offers its Nozomi single-pass printer and Durst offers the Delta SPC 130 single-pass printer. Agfa’s 2022 acquisition of flatbed-printer pioneer Inca Digital is due partly to Inca’s development of single-pass printing for packaging.
Today, new buyers of wide-format printers serve customers who want things other than marketing graphics or signs. At the 2022 ISA Sign Expo, young creative entrepreneurs watched demonstrations of wide-format flatbed, direct-to-garment, and direct-to-film printers that could be used to build businesses around personalized or customized products such as photo gifts, promotional products, and apparel. These digital natives will take full advantage of the ability to sell their merchandise through e-commerce storefronts and marketplaces. .
So where do we stand?
I agree with Richard Romano and Tim Greene that the large-format sign and graphics business has matured. As I can attest, many entrepreneurs who built large-format businesses in the 1990s have already exited the business, through mergers, acquisitions, or in-family successions.
The digital printing equipment manufacturers that developed the technology used to grow wide-format sign and display markets are now engineering specialized systems capable of higher volume, industrial production of packaging, textiles, and building materials.
For example, Agfa’s InterioJet system prints laminated surface designs on floors and furniture and its Alussa system digitally prints on leather. EFI makes Reggiani printers for industrial textile production, Cubik systems for printing on wood veneer, hardwood, boards, and panels, and Cretaprint ceramic tile printers. Durst makes systems for producing wallpaper, home textiles, and ceramic floor and wall tiles.
These systems can help make manufacturing more sustainable and less wasteful. They may also expand opportunities for architects and interior designers to source custom materials closer to the sites where they will be used.
The PRINTING United Expo in Las Vegas October 19-21 provides an outstanding opportunity to see what’s next for both entry-level and industrial-grade printing technologies. Visitors will see systems and materials for printing and converting signs, displays, marketing materials, books, labels, and packaging. Attendees will also see devices that can be used to produce textiles, decor, photo gifts, and decorated apparel.
I can’t wait to see how entrepreneurs continue to capitalize on all the new opportunities that will be on display at PRINTING United.