Palm Desert

Tracking sales growth of National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) Printing Business Panel members from 2000 to 2007, NAPL Research Center economists see variations from 50.1 percent sales growth to more than 20 percent sales loss, depending on the strategic path businesses followed. The results, which offer a cautionary lesson for printers now trying to deal with a fledgling recovery from the industry’s deepest recession on record, were revealed in the newly released NAPL State of the Industry Report, Ninth Edition, sponsored by Heidelberg.

Make plans to provide customers serving the travel and hospitality markets with business-boosting printed documents and promotional items. The travel and hospitality industries were hard-hit by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, but business is now back on track, according to manufacturers and distributors. "I think 2004 will be a far better year," said Bryna Blum, president of WCBS/E.H. Bickett & Co., Palm Desert, Calif. After Sept. 11, her business—which is 100 percent devoted to travel and hospitality vertical markets—nosedived 70 percent. Many clients were placing only small orders for stock business forms, unsure of how long they'd stay in business. By