Commercial Printing Finds New Growth Opportunities

This product was sold to a roofing company—a prime example of just how diverse the markets can be for today's commercial printing products. A few other lucrative markets that Stylecraft has printed for include the retirement, environmental and, of course, printing industries.

Midwest Color Graphics' end-users are just as diverse. "We have brokers all over the country," said Green. "We get everything from brochures for mom-and-pop businesses to hospital and banking orders."

Smart Sales

Since commercial printing evolved to include technology for modern services, such as print-on-demand and variable digital printing, many distributors have long attempted to sell these products while still on a major learning curve. But, today, says Green, distributors are more educated. "I would say that the biggest problem in selling commercial printing rests in the distributors' hands, meaning that they need to educate customers," he said. "Our biggest dilemma now is that our prepress comes from the customer, which includes a lot of smaller companies trying to handle the complicated task of design, layout and submission."

Green added that it is up to the distributor now to clearly communicate how to correctly handle all of those steps. "And, in terms of terminology, most brokers clearly understand what a PDF file is, what bleeds are and what types of software are best for small businesses. I suggest that distributors stay up-to-date and take time to keep their customers up-to-date, as well."

Both Green and Pesci-Jones predicted that commercial printing sales would continue to rise over the next few years based on its affordability and the increase of small businesses looking for short-run jobs. "It's just the way things are right now," said Green. "Individuals are able to create work right from their own desktops, and that should continue to provide for endless work."