Printing Industries  Export Study Finds Gold

The American publishing market could provide huge export opportunities for Australian printers.

A Printing Industries commissioned study into export opportunities for Australian printers has identified a potential market of a minimum $330 million. Click here for full report.

The study was undertaken by the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) to help identify potential opportunities for the Australian book printing industry. This initiative also meets the objectives of Printing Industries'  PRINT21 recommendations to develop overseas markets and promote industry capabilities.

Some 265 publishers from the key publishing states of  New York,  California,  Illinois,  Massachusetts,  Tennessee and  Washingtonwere contacted and invited to participate in the survey. The categories of books covered by the study included:

·      Adult trade;

• Juvenile trade;
• Professional and technical;
• Reference;
• College textbooks;
• Elementary and high school textbooks;
• University/scholarly press;
• Children's books; and
• Religious texts.

Of the 75 publishers who agreed to participate, 24 expressed an interest in obtaining information on Australian book printers and their capabilities.

Printing IndustriesManager, Industry and Commercial Policy, Hagop Tchamkertenian, said the annual print budget of these 24 publishers alone was conservatively estimated at more than $330 million.

"The impact of the survey findings for the Australian book printing industry can be summarised as bring promising and challenging," he said.

"The book exporting opportunities identified by this snapshot study of American publishers is greater than the turnover of the entire Australian book printing industry which is estimated to be in the range of $250 million to $280 million."

Cost, quality, service and delivery timeframes were identified as the main factors considered by American publishers when reviewing or considering new book printing suppliers.

The cost factor was by far the most dominant with 53 per cent of publishers identifying it as their primary criteria in selecting a book printer. This was followed by quality which was nominated by 23 per cent of the surveyed publishers.

Mr Tchamkertenian said American publishers had two major areas of concern in dealing with Australian book printers - travel distance and shipping costs.

"The challenge facing prospective Australian book exporters is to overcome some of the barriers identified by the study.

"Perceptions whether real or imaginary need to be addressed. For example, while travel distance was identified as an area of concern, the study also revealed that American publishers currently source their four-colour work from Asian destinations such as Hong Kong and Singapore," he said.

The two book product categories offering the greatest potential for exports were children's books (with novelties) and religious texts. The report recommended that these niche areas be investigated further.

The study reveals that most of the American publishers wanted turn-around times of four weeks or more.

"Given that Australian book printers require 4 - 6 weeks to deliver books into the American market, this result is an encouraging one," Mr Tchamkertenian said.

"Opportunities for reprints do not exist since the vast majority of American publishers require turn-around times of four weeks or less.

"Seasonal factors also go inAustralia's favour with American publishers indicating that their busiest season is their summer, which corresponds with our winter.

"Australia's web printing capacity utilisation are at their lowest level during the May - June period. This low utilisation period is ideal to service the book printing needs of American publishers," he said.

Most of the American publishers surveyed had between 101 - 500 book titles in print. Many had between 2,001 to 5,000 titles in print.

The majority of surveyed publishers indicated print runs of up to 5,000 copies with a significant number having typical print runs of up to 50,000.

Mr Tchamkertenian said that while the low Australian dollar encouraged exports, the development of an export strategy was a prerequisite for achieving success.

"Now that the study has identified book exporting opportunities in the American publishing market, the next logical step would be to draft an export strategy to assist Australian book printers penetrate the American publishing market," he said.

"The study outcomes are positive, but we believe it is only the tip of the iceberg with considerably more potential yet to be uncovered."

The book exports study was made possible through funding received by Printing Industries from the Department of Industry, Science and Tourism. The funding came from the Infrastructure and Industry Growth Fund (IIGF) component of the Enhanced Printing Industry Competitiveness Scheme (EPICS).