The printing industry has achieved two consecutive quarters of growth, something that the UK economy has yet to achieve, according to the latest Printing Outlook survey from the BPIF.
Should government figures record a further, albeit fractional, improvement for the economy as a whole, it will confirm print’s role as a bellwether sector. However, the industry is giving out mixed signals on the state of the trade, says the federation. “There are plenty of opinions on a number of issues companies are currently experiencing,” it reports, going on to finger inflation, which is not declining at the rates that might have been expected; interest rates remaining too high; business rates that are too high; but most of all subsequent effects of the increase in the national living wage. When wage differentials are taken into account, this imposes an unwanted burden on many in print.
“Companies do not wish to obstruct a fair wage being paid; in fact many can benefit from having an open and transparent annual wage increase,” says BPIF economist Kyle Jardine. “However, the knock on effect of maintaining wage differentials throughout the various skills employed can easily double budgeted pay rises.”
Wage increases are averaging 5.1% from the 52% of companies that had conducted a pay review in the quarter.
The top business concern is attracting new sales as capacity utilisation remains in the 70-89% range, no change from findings in the first quarter of the year. Given this, the general expectation for a growth in profits comes from improvements in efficiency and cost control.
The survey began asking questions around action to improve sustainability of its respondents, in this iteration 111 of the industry’s larger companies. The answers show 70% of businesses now measure their carbon footprint, 50% of whom have been doing this for more than a year and 20% taking action in the last 12 months. This is a sharp increase: 56% were measuring emissions in October and 38% were doing this a year ago. Four-fifths of those that have been running the calculations have put in place actions to reduce emissions.
BPIF chief executive Charles Jarrold welcomes this saying: “When we look at emissions measurement, it is promising to see that, in the last year, there has been a noticeable progression from companies starting measuring, through measuring just Scope 1 and 2, to incorporating Scope 3.
“In the coming months we expect to see more companies setting emission reduction targets, and getting their targets validated by organisations like the Science Based Targets Initiative.”
