Smaller print businesses across Australia are continuing to struggle while larger companies have boosted their turnover over the past year, according to a new Future Print benchmarking survey.
"In most of the turnover ranges, the profit-to-owner figures have increased and the top 25% reported substantial improvements in turnover," said industry guru and Future Print business advisor Richard Rasmussen, director of Ascent Partners. "But there are still issues with the bottom 25%. The smaller companies in the lower turnover range continue to face a lot of challenges and they're dragging down the overall numbers quite substantially."
The latest data from the national benchmarking program - launched in connection with the PIAA-backed Transition Tour - comes from a survey of 142 printers who entered their figures for financial year 2015 (FY15). For the first time, these figures have been compared to data from the previous year, when 96 printers entered their details for FY14.
"We've had a very good response this year with about a 50% increase in participants and the larger sample size means the figures are likely to be more accurate," said Rasmussen.
The first set of benchmarking data released last year shocked the industry by revealing the average profit available to an owner in the bottom quartile was about $34,000, or less than $17 an hour.
Detailed figures from the latest survey are expected to be released this week.
Rasmussen will run another series of webinars over the next few months as part of the Future Print Transition Tour, which will include an in-depth look at the latest data.