The past 12 months have been tough on Western Australia’s printing industry.
As consumers become more reliant on social media and portable devices, such as iPads, companies facing a challenging economy have focused on online marketing and tablet computers as cheaper alternatives to print advertisements and reports.
Worldwide Online Printing partner Jon Dorotich said printing costs were an important factor companies considered when determining the overall cost of production and distribution of reports and advertisements.
“People can browse through annual reports on tablets and subsequently the volume of reports being printed has dropped, in some instances from 50,000 to 5,000 copies,” Mr Dorotich said.
PMP Print WA general manager Clinton Willis said demand for catalogue printing had suffered dramatically.
“When times are tough, the first thing retailers do is reconsider marketing budgets and catalogue expenditure is one of the first things to go,” Mr Willis said.
PMP Print and Worldwide said the past year had been difficult.
Only six out of 19 companies surveyed by WA Business News reported increases in staff numbers, between 2007 and 2012, while the overall sample groups’ staff numbers dropped 7 per cent.
Further information on WA's top printing companies can be found in the Book of Lists.
