Economic Indicators Paint a Picture of Uncertainty

At PRINTING United Expo in Las Vegas Sept 23-25, a group of experts came together to discuss some of the biggest trends, truths, and takeaways the print industry is facing right now. The packed panel, moderated by Ashley Roberts, content director of Printing Impressions, covered everything from economics, to OSHA, to HR — and beyond.

Andy Paparozzi, chief economist, PRINTING United Alliance, broke down what he is seeing when it comes to the overall economic picture right now. The general economy is dominated by uncertainty, he stressed, with fluctuating tariffs and rising costs, in particular, contributing to the squeeze on profitability for printers of all sizes and types.

“The indicators … overwhelmingly show greater uncertainty than any time since COVID,” he noted.

That said, he also stressed that those who will come out ahead in the months and years to come are the leaders making bold decisions and investments. The old paradigm of waiting out periods of change or turmoil isn’t going to work this time — those who want to see their businesses continue to thrive will need to become experts at risk assessment and management, making smart choices when it comes to everything from equipment to new lines of business.

Paparozzi explained, “There is a huge gap between profit leaders and the industry at large. And it's no one thing that defines a consistent, long-term profit leader — they do a number of things consistently better than their peers, including cost control, productivity, automation, all those things that affect how much growth gets from the top line to the bottom line, but as I've heard Lisa [Cross] say many times, cost control, productivity, automation — that stuff only gets you so far. You've got to be able to generate … sticky growth, growth that keeps them involved in their clients' work, gets them involved in their clients' work earlier, keeps them involved longer, and helps their clients communicate more effectively with their clients.

“They also are very good at anticipating, analyzing, and anticipating trends,” he continued. “They're very good at forecasting, reading the market, and getting a handle on what's ahead, and then they are very good at executing on what they learned. They're very good at identifying opportunity, identifying threats, and then very efficiently and quickly putting in place plans to either capture the opportunity or to minimize the effect of the threat. And then the fourth thing they're very good at is risk management. If the last six years have taught us anything, it's the importance of managing risk. Everyone who runs a printing company calculates key performance indicators, but surprisingly few calculate key risk indicators, which are measures of risk. They create risk heat maps and risk transcripts. All these things are non-advanced. They're not complex. Anyone can do them.”