North American printers are learning to improve their
profitability even as top-line challenges in sales remain. Printers
participating in this years’ Ratios Survey attained average profit rates of 2.7
percent on sales—up from 1.8 percent last year. This is the highest level in
the past six years, but it is still not back to the pre-recession level of 3.1
percent in 2008. Profit leaders—printers in the top 25 percent of
profitability—saw profits increase slightly to 9.9 percent compared to 9.6
percent last year. This rate of profit brings profit leaders to their highest
level since before the recession in 2007. According to our 2013 survey results,
materials accounted for the largest single cost category for the typical
printer—approximately 36 percent of sales. Total materials expenses increased
slightly in 2013 from their previous level of 35.5 percent in 2012. Paper alone
consumed more than one-in-five sales dollars last year. Other major costs
incurred by printers last year included factory payroll (24.6 percent of sales)
down from 24.8 percent in 2012, factory expenses (16.9 percent of sales) down
from 17.6 percent in 2012, and administrative and selling expenses (19.3
percent of sales) down from 19.6 percent in 2012. Sales per employee for all printers stood at $155,348.
Profit leaders’ sales per employee were significantly higher at $171,153.
