Blaming Covid-19 for all the problems? – While there is no question that Covid-19 has had a dramatic impact on our industry in terms of both profit and sales, there are underlying problems that continue to impact our industry as well.
Many firms we surveyed were facing modest to serious financial problems long before March 2020 came along! Now, 12-months later, an unknown number of firms have closed their doors, while others are counting upon more federal and state relief packages to help them survive.
We predict that 2021 will experience another round of closures, most of which can be blamed on poor financial management and not Covid-19. Many of the firms that will close their doors have been poorly managed for years, and yet they will seek to blame Covid-19 (or anything else for that matter) for most of their problems. Many owners will attempt to sell their firms only to discover their businesses are worth 60-80% less than they expected!
Ironically, while many printers will cite Covid-19 and pricing by competitors as an excuse for not raising prices, other printers, sometimes those right down the street, will review a study such as this (The 2021-22 Digital Color Pricing Study) and move ahead with confidence and raise prices based upon what they uncover in this study.
While “belt-tightening” and improved efficiency can always help to reduce the need to raise prices, prices still need to be adjusted and raised and “smart” printers do just that.
