Covid sends PVCA membership down
Print industry employers association PVCA saw its membership income fall by a third in the last 12 months, as Covid caused printers to keep all the cash they could.
The loss in revenue from $760,000 to $495,000 from member subscriptions contributed to a loss for the year of $583,000 for the association. Membership now stands at 573 print businesses, which is down by 160 on the number two years ago.
Speaking at the AGM, the Association’s president Walter Kuhn said: “It wouldn’t be the first time a president begins his report by saying it has been a testing year of unprecedented and unforeseeable adversity for our businesses, but it has never been truer than it is now.
“Your Association experienced a dramatic drop in income from membership fees and nobody is blaming businesses for doing everything possible to reduce costs during a time of catastrophic decline in trade that threatened our very existence.”
The loss meant current assets went from $695,000 last year to $110,000 this year, leaving the association with $5.8m in total equity, down from $6.3m two years ago. Last year, PVCA was in the black for the first time in several years, to the tune of $95,000.
Staff costs were cut from $817,000 to $462,000, with the Association having the equivalent of two full-time staff and several part-time.
Kuhn said: “As an Association, we had to become more frugal, efficient and learn to do more with less, just as our members have. My heartfelt thanks go out to all the staff, especially our CEO Andrew Macaulay, who is leaving the Association after five fruitful years in the job.
“The pandemic has not passed, but the world has learned to live with it. No industry has been nimbler in adapting to changed circumstances than the print and visual communications industries. We are of course battle hardened from earlier economic crises and used to seeing external change as opportunity rather than threat, having operated through the challenges of an increasingly digital environment, as well as the growing and welcome demand for environmental sustainability.
“We did more than survive. We kept the presses going and while the volume went down, the quality certainly did not. We know that from the outstanding quality of the entries in this year’s Print Industry Creativity Awards, which I have the privilege to attending in each mainland state.
“The forecast for the future of the industry is generally sunny with the ever present chance of thunderstorms. To thrive, we may have to become even leaner and we will definitely have to become even greener. But after 2020, it is impossible to imagine a challenge too difficult for the outstanding members of the Association I have the honour of leading.”
The PVCA is currently searching for a new CEO, with current incumbent Andrew Macaulay set to depart when the new perosn is appointed. Macaulay is currently recuperating from a motorbike accident.