← External Forces: Industry Specific (all topics)
Print-to-digital decline & consumables
What it is
Printing machinery and inks face structural decline in publication and commercial print as media moves digital, while packaging print grows with e-commerce and organised retail. Ink and toner consumables generate recurring revenue on the installed base
Digital and specialty printing substitute for conventional offset in short runs
Impact on industries
- Publication and commercial print decline is structural, and equipment sold into that segment has a shrinking installed base to service
- Consumables are a genuine annuity - ink and toner recur with volume printed regardless of whether new machines are sold
- Packaging print and specialty inks grow with e-commerce, retail and the shift from plastic to paper formats, offsetting publication decline
- Equipment is largely imported, and digital printing shortens run lengths so the consumables annuity persists but its composition shifts