Semper Survey Finds US Commercial Print Profits Fell to 50.8% in 1Q2013

According to a Survey completed by Semper International, profits of US printers fell, but sales revenues gained a modest rise in the first quarter of 2013. The Survey covered some 300 printers of all sizes across America. It found that their print profits fell from nearly 79% in the previous quarter to only 50.8% in 1Q2013.

Dave Regan, CEO of Semper, said, “I am mainly concerned about the drop in the number of companies reporting profits. It was a big drop which has never happened before.”

However, more than 25% of the responding companies said that revenues of the first quarter rose in the last quarter of 2012. Also, almost 47% of those surveyed expect sales in 2Q2013 will be better than the early part of the year.

Regan also said that the federal government is reducing its spending by 2% across the board and increasing the federal payroll tax. The government’s budget cutting added some uncertainty to the US economy and the commercial printing industry. In addition, commercial printers were not spending money on equipment.

However, Regan added that many commercial printers were not willing to employ new staff. Some commercial printers with around 50 employees were hiring temporary workers. Under the new healthcare rules, the U.S. government will subsidize some costs for companies having less than 50 employees.