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Extremely Low Advertising Outlays Result in Extended Crisis
in the Printing Industry
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Numerous Print Shop Insolvencies in Industrialized
Countries
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Excess Capacities among Equipment Suppliers to the Printing
Industry
At the end of 2009, many people thought the end of the global
economic crisis was just around the corner, for the economic
situation in the Western industrialized countries also began to
pick up. Print shops and equipment suppliers to the printing
industry, on the other hand, only experienced a slight upswing.
Most companies maintained their rigid belt-tightening measures,
into which they had been forced by sales downturns, excess
capacities, and financing difficulties, so they were still not
prepared to increase their advertising budgets. Commercial print
shops therefore had to struggle with the ongoing low outlays for
the print media and thus invested hardly at all in new printing
presses. The incipient growth trend is perceived as being unstable
in all sectors of the economy. This can be seen in the overall
extremely low propensity to invest, which has further worsened due
to more restrictive lending provisions. In addition, stock markets
were extremely volatile and reacted nervously to changes in
underlying conditions worldwide. The debt crisis in Greece at the
end of the reporting year and the loss in value of the euro have
further worsened the uncertainty regarding further economic
developments. Nevertheless, private consumer spending increased. As
a consequence, capacity utilization of packaging print shops again
began to slowly rise.
