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U.S. Office and Production Print Volumes Declining Two Percent per Year

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According to research from Keypoint Intelligence that included findings from a recent survey with office-imaging dealer principals, the $40 billion U.S. office and production equipment, service and supply business has been declining slightly. The A3 and A4 market has been declining 1.5 percent per year. Light-volume production printer revenue is up by 0.2 percent, while the wide-format printer sector (engineering, CAD, not including wide-format flatbed printers) witnessed robust growth at 5.2 percent.

In terms of U.S. office and production printing volume, page counts are declining 2 percent per year. Light-volume production black-and-white has fallen 3.8 percent, while color is up 5.1 percent. Business-inkjet growth is 11 percent, while office black-and-white toner pages have fallen 5.5 percent.

More than half of the business with large customers (500-plus employees) are managed via managed print contracts. Mid-size customers (100-499 employees) “tend to prefer click-charge contracts,” while smaller customers (99 employees and fewer) lean toward transactional business.

According to Keypoint Intelligence, U.S. document solutions will become a $3 billion business by 2020, and is growing at a rate of 3.5 percent per year. Document management and workflow enjoys a 4.1 percent growth rate, with device and output management at 3.1 percent.

Keypoint Intelligence says it surveyed a wide range of dealers (from sub-$5 million to $50 million-plus in revenues), with 87 percent of respondents being either the owner or a high-ranking executive. One-third reported flat or declining year-over-year revenue. Smaller dealers reported a profit margin of 10 percent, while large dealers registered a margin just higher than 16 percent.

The bigger dealers, for the most part, “are making more investments and reaping the profits in the process.” Some of the most common factors cited as drivers for revenue growth include: better internal business systems (45 percent), increased sales (35 percent, added sales staff (30 percent), bolstered marketing efforts (25 percent) and acquired dealerships (25 percent).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, among the leading factors cited for revenue decline were loss of key sales staff (45 percent), loss of key customers (35 percent), a weak economy (20 percent), competition from local dealers (20 percent), and direct competition from OEMs (10 percent).

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