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What are typical profit margins in the commercial print industry?
Hello! Thanks for your question about the typical profit margins in the commercial print industry. The most useful source I found to answer your question is a January 2015 Forbes article about the improving profitability of the printing industry.
The short version of my answer is that, according to financial information company Sageworks, in the year ended January 20, 2015, the net profit margin in the printing industry was 5.2%. Whether there are differences in profit margin among subgroups in the commercial printing industry is not publicly available, however. Below you will find further details on this.
METHODOLOGY
To answer your question, I first looked among recently published pages and files for relevant information. Seeing that publicly available information on the subject is very limited, I expanded my search to older resources and looked for other search terms to use as well. For example, in some of my searches, I tried replacing 'commercial print industry' with its corresponding NAICS code and substituting other profitability measures such as the EBITDA for 'profit margin'.
These approaches turned up a few useful sources. Though some of them are dated, they still provide helpful insights. You may see below the information I gathered from these sources.
TYPICAL PROFIT MARGINS
As mentioned above, the most useful source I saw is a January 2015 Forbes article about commercial printers. According to this article, financial information company Sageworks estimated that the net profit margin of commercial printers in the year ended January 20, 2015 was 5.2%. Four years earlier, the net profit margin was just 1.4%.
It appears from the article that the 5.2%-margin was based on Sageworks' analysis of firms in the industry with NAICS Code 3231. This code refers to 'Printing and Related Support Activities.' Listed below are all the printing-related NAICS Codes.
323 Printing and Related Support Activities
3231 Printing and Related Support Activities
32311 Printing
323111 Commercial Printing (except Screen and Books)
323113 Commercial Screen Printing
323117 Books Printing
32312 Support Activities for Printing
323120 Support Activities for Printing
The profit margins of subgroups under NAICS Code 3231 are not publicly available; consequently, I have no basis for saying whether they significantly differ.
Information from Printing.org provides insight into how the printing industry's profit margin had changed over the years. Across years 1980 to 2012, profit margin was highest (~8%) in 1980 and lowest (~-2%) around years 2009-2010. In years 2013, 2014, and 2015, the profit margin was 2.7%, 2.6%, and 3.0%, respectively.
Meanwhile, from a 2012 IBISWorld report on the commercial printing industry with NAICS Code 32311, I learned that "over the five years to 2012, profit margins have fallen from 4.7% of revenue to 4.1%" and that, in 2012, "industry profit margins will average 5.1%, measured by earnings before interest and taxes."
Both Sageworks and Printing.org gave estimates of the profit margin in 2015. However, the one provided by Printing.org seems to be too low relative to the profit margin in 2012. Given that the profitability of the printing industry is said to be improving, a 5.2%-margin in 2015 appears more plausible.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, a profit margin of around 5.2% is expected among commercial printers. Information on whether there are differences in profit margin among subgroups in the commercial print industry is not publicly available.
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