The Custom Screen Printing industry endured a brutal recessionary dive, with industry revenue plummeting 12.4% in 2009 as demand dried up. Businesses and consumers experienced severe drops in income during the recession; as a result, demand for discretionary purchases, including custom screen printing, dipped. “As consumer incomes and corporate profit have grown consistently since then, though, demand for industry services has returned,” says IBISWorld industry analyst Dale Schmidt. Furthermore, overall economic growth will support an expected 4.0% revenue increase in 2013. Still, the turmoil experienced in the early part of the past five-year period is expected to yield an overall average decrease of 0.7% annually to $2.1 billion.
The proliferation of the internet across America has had a mixed effect on the Custom Screen Printing industry. On one hand, it has lowered barriers to entry into the industry because operators no longer need retail space to advertise and sell their wares. As a result, the number of industry firms is expected to increase an average 0.9% annually in the five years to 2013. However, the internet has also led to greater competition as more and more potential customers look to internet publishing over traditional printing. “The internet has also strengthened the do-it-yourself screen printing movement,” adds Schmidt. “Screen printing equipment and supplies are cheap and widely available online.” Additionally, aspiring screen printers have a wealth of how-to guides and instructional videos to teach them the trade. This increased competition has dragged the average profit margin down.
Due to the highly competitive nature of the industry and because most firms are small regional operators, it is difficult for players to capture significant market share. With apparel printing, there are websites that instruct consumers on how to screen print their own apparel, thereby making the services of industry operators less essential. Furthermore, industry products such as calendars, yearbooks, periodicals and invitations are becoming increasingly digitized, making it more difficult for industry operators to increase revenue. Therefore, the industry is estimated to have a low market share concentration.
Competition is anticipated to become even more fierce over the next five years, limiting revenue growth. Industry revenue will grow as consumer and business incomes continue to rise; however, these gains will taper off over the next five-year period, due in part to slowing corporate profit growth. Corporate profit rebounded strongly from the recession, growing at an annualized rate of 9.6% in the past five years. But this growth will slow in the five years to 2018.