90% Of UK Print Industry Facing Collapse

Print News: 90% Of UK Print Industry Facing Collapse


A report by support services firm Tenon Recovery has shown that 90% of UK printer companies face closing.

The dire state of the UK print industry has been independently confirmed, with PrintWeek.com reporting on a study by Tenon Recovery that 90% of print companies face collapse. Tenon, which gives support services to ailing companies, used numerous criteria to make its judgement, including: credit ratings, County Court Judgements and net worth. According to the report, 9742 print companies face ‘probable collapse and potential winding-up petitions.’ Another 5991 businesses ranked behind, ‘defined as being in danger because of substantial financial difficulties.’ Only one in ten firms in the UK print industry rated financially stable.

The report comes only days after the British Printing Industries Federation announced its annual conference. Centring on ‘Finance and Investment,’ the conference will address what BPIF calls the ‘New Normal,’ so helping printer companies to adapt to the financial climate. Given the desire of the BPIF to refocus on the positive, the report by Tenon Recovery could be called scare-mongering. Speaking to PrintWeek.com, Andrew Brown, BPIF’s corporate affairs director, said circumstances were ‘not as disastrous’ as Tenon was making out. ‘While the print sector is still contracting, the rate at which it is doing so is easing,’ he said.

Tenon’s report states that 419 print companies have collapsed this year alone. Included within their number is Butler and Tanner, previously the UK’s largest colour printing firm. The firm’s closure left publishers scrambling to make deadlines, and left 300 people jobless. Perhaps more importantly though, its collapse means publishers have very few options to print domestically, and must depend on European firms. Meanwhile, media agency GroupM has announced its prediction that print advertising will fall 20.4% in 2009, indicating a serious decline in demand among publishers. This will place the print industry under further pressure.

Yet some print industry insiders are painting the news as positive. Speaking to PrintWeek.com, Phil Payter, the Managing Director at PPG, argued that ‘The recession will change print for the better. [The] less crowded marketplace will mean unscrupulous print brokers and management companies will lose their grip in the industry and disappear.’ Malcolm Carter, the Managing Director of First Class Post, said that: ‘the only option is to operate more efficiently, trimming costs as much as possible.’ In other words, the depth of the recession means only the sturdiest firms survive: the crisis marks a chance to further define a firm’s strengths.

However, whether it is accurate to describe the 90% of print companies under threat, according to Tenon, as ‘unscrupulous print brokers’ is not certain. Doubtless the recession will reduce an overcrowded print market, but many legitimate – and valuable – businesses are sacrificed at the same time. Tenon’s report meanwhile, should be taken with a pinch of salt. Though giving a gloomy forecast for the print industry, the firm’s report does not compare it against other industries. For example, according to GroupM, spending in television advertising will fall 11.2% in 2009, while spending next year will increase by merely 0.1%. The printing market may take (grim) comfort knowing its collapse is not isolated.

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