European Report Reveals Digital Print's Growth

Pira International said it has quantified and analysed the European printing market in a new study.

Pira International said it has quantified and analysed the European printing market in a new study.

'The Future of European Printing to 2011' provides a breakdown of the European printing market, including market sizes and analysis of 25 countries, printing inks, print processes, printed products and competitor analysis of the top 50 printing companies in Europe.

Key findings emphasise that printing in Europe was valued at EUR155 billion in 2006, up 9.3 per cent since 2001, with growth of 6.5 per cent forecast to 2011, when the market will be valued at EUR165 billion.

The report points out that Germany represents the single largest economy in western Europe at a projected EUR2.2 trillion for 2006, ahead of the UK (EUR1.8 trillion) and France (EUR1.7 trillion).

In total, there are around 80,000 printing enterprises in Europe but numbers have fallen back during the past five years as many have gone out of business in an increasingly competitive environment.

Offset printing predominates the industry, with sales of EUR81.7 billion in 2006, of which sheet-fed accounts for EUR30.2 billion and heatset EUR27.8 billion.

The fastest growing sectors are digital printing and wide format, with wide format in particular registering strong gains at the expense of screen printing, added the report.

Packaging, along with labels, is the single largest print product sector valued at EUR44.8 billion in 2006 and it is poised to offer significant growth even in developed markets.

According to the report's findings, overall, the eastern European print market is projected to grow by around 11 per cent during 2006 to EUR11 billion, up from EUR8.2 billion in 2001, with strong growth of almost 27 per cent, forecast to EUR13.9 billion in 2011.

Russia is the single largest market in eastern Europe, with the market valued at EUR2.9 billion in 2006, ahead of Poland (EUR2 billion) and the Czech Republic (EUR1.2 billion).

'The Future of European Printing to 2011' report is available now in hard copy or as a searchable PDF file.

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