The BPIF’s Printing Outlook quarterly survey of British printing companies has shown that output and orders for the last quarter of last year surpassed expectations and that printers expect the first quarter of this year to continue this trend.
Roughly 56 percent of those surveyed increased their output levels in the final quarter of 2015, while a further 29 percent managed stable output levels in Q4. However, it should be noted that this followed a drop in orders in the third quarter.
For the first quarter of this year, around 46 percent expect to increase output levels, with some 41 percent predicting that output levels will remain the same and 13 percent expecting output to decline in Q1. Despite this, almost two-thirds (63%) believe that the general state of trade in the industry will remain unchanged with only 24 percent believing that trading conditions will improve.
Printers continue to worry about competitors pricing below cost and about the difficulty of finding skilled workers.
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