Commercial Printing Industry Profile

The US commercial printing industry includes about 30,000 companies with combined annual revenue of about $80 billion. Major companies include Consolidated Graphics, Quad/Graphics, and RR Donnelley. The industry is fragmented: the largest 50 companies account for about 30 percent of revenue.

The commercial printing industry includes printing on apparel and textile products, paper, metal, glass, and plastics; it also includes support services such as typesetting, platemaking, and book binding. Book, magazine, and newspaper publishing are covered in separate industry profiles.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand is driven by advertising and product needs of business customers. The profitability of individual companies is closely linked to effective sales operations. Large companies have scale advantages in buying materials like paper and ink, serving large customers with regional or national needs, and making efficient use of expensive presses. Small companies can compete effectively by offering better local service in a specific product category.

Digital technology has changed the competitive landscape of the commercial printing market. Prices for digital color pages are falling below offset printing prices and companies that fall behind in the shift to digital printing are at risk, especially in the pre-media portion of printing.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Commercial printers produce magazines, phone books, labels, advertising brochures, catalogs, newspaper inserts, direct mail marketing pieces, corporate reports and other financial printing, training manuals, promotional materials, and business forms. Most commercial printers offer four distinct services: design and other prepress services; actual printing; finishing ...