The digital printing market - France

1.2 Digital printing is growing but is a minority in the global market

The digital printing market size is expected to grow from USD **.* billion in **** to USD **.* billion by ****, at a CAGR (***) of *.*%. Increasing demand for sustainable printing and development of packaging and textile industries are the major factors driving the growth of the digital printing market.

Size of the digital printing market World, ****-****, in billions of dollars Source: ****

North America accounts for the largest share of the global digital printing market in ****. The North American market is driven by technological advances in the packaging and textile industries.

Breakdown of the printing market, by type of technology World, ****-*****, in Source: ****

Digital printing, and in particular inkjet printing, represents an increasingly important and valuable part of the overall printing market.

According to Smithers Digital is expected to expand into new areas in key markets such as packaging, and to increase its competitiveness in long-run printing thanks to a new generation of high-speed presses

As far as printer manufacturers are concerned, they are mainly Japanese or American, giants on the world market Xerox (***) are two examples.

1.3 Digital supports a shrinking French print market

Today in France there is a general decline in the printing market in all its forms. The use of digitalization is becoming more and more frequent, both for practical and ecological reasons.

According to INSEE, the NAF code **.**Z entitled "Other printing (***)" includes

Printing of magazines and other periodicals, appearing less than four times a week Printing of books and brochures, sheet music, maps, atlases, posters, catalogues, leaflets and other printed advertising material, stamps, revenue stamps, means of payment and other paper of value, smart cards, albums, diaries calendars and other commercial printed matter, letterheads and other printed matter on letterpress, offset, gravure, flexographic, screen and other graphic presses, reproduction equipment, electronic printers, embossing equipment. Direct printing on textiles, plastics, glass, metal, wood and ceramics

This NAF code is used to determine the state of the printing market in France.

Breakdown of commercial printing sales by market France, ****, in Source: ****

Evolution of the domestic and export turnover index for NAF code **.**Z France, ****-June ****, in turnover index (***) Source: ****

It can be seen here that the market seems to be undergoing a structural decline since ****, and that it has been further weakened by the health crisis in ****, since the figures for the ...

1.4 The impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the printing industry

Few companies in the sector have not been affected by the crisis linked to the pandemic. As the sector is made up of many small and medium-sized companies, it has been difficult for many to resist this crisis, in a field that was already in decline before. Many companies have been weakened by the crisis, but the difficulties are mounting, as they are likely to encounter difficulties with their working capital requirements. Loans are also difficult to obtain at this level. The emphasis on digital technology for reasons of distance and security has also had a negative impact on the printing sector. [***]

But the impact has been different depending on the activity carried out by these companies:

IPG (***) printers were the least affected because of their status Hybrid printers were able to retain **% of their business on average by focusing much more on periodicals than on advertising The printers linked to advertising (***) stopped their production and kept only a few employees in operation for support purposes; the majority of employees were put on leave in various ways Event printers have suffered an **% drop in activity due to the halt in orders within the sector: it is one of the segments that ...

2.1 Status of the digital printing demand sectors

Digital printing and packaging :

According to KonicaMinolta The digital label and packaging printing industry will continue to grow in ****. In fact, it will "Enables brands and manufacturers to respond quickly to customer demands, improve their production and supply chains, reduce warehousing costs, waste and helps them get their products to market faster." according to a IDC study . The evolution of the packaging market over the last few years should be taken into account to better situate the demand: by studying the graph below, we can see that the plastic packaging market seemed to be in a period of structural growth before the advent of the Covid-** health crisis in ****. This drop in market value is therefore due to the economic climate, but the market trend suggests that plastic packaging is not destined to decline.

Plastic packaging market development France, ****-****, in billion euros CAGR from **** to ****: *.** Source: ****

Following on from plastic packaging, it is paper packaging that should be studied: the index of its turnover (***) tells us that this market seemed to be in structural growth from **** to ****. And despite the drop in this index in ****, we can see that the recovery that began in the first six months of **** already ...

2.2 The major revolution in 3D printing to come

Digital *D printing is revolutionizing many sectors. This innovative technique can now even be integrated into advertising displays. As for professionals, they use it to design prototypes, models, prostheses, implants, and even more recently in the manufacture of houses.

*D printing offers individuals and professionals the possibility to print *D objects in different materials.

The most common use of this technology is in the manufacture of parts and prototypes, according to BPI France But it is rather the bioprinting which should know the strongest growth in the years to come (***) predicts that *D printing will account for up to **% of the world's healthcare expenditure by ****. Thus IDC also gives the following figures to realize the importance of this sector

****: **% of electronics manufacturers will use *D printing for circuit board manufacturing, and ***% of sports equipment manufacturers will have a range of *D printed products ****: **% of the industrial and professional sector will use *D printing and artificial intelligence.

As far as France is concerned, IDC also places Western Europe on the second step of the podium, with €*.* billion of expenditure, behind the United States (***).

The French *D printing market France, **** - *****, in €M Source: ****

As can be seen above, the French ...

2.3 Print-on-demand and eco-responsibility drive digital printing

Publishing on demand

According to Les Echos As a result of declining sales and the need for a more efficient printing system, more and more publishers are considering digital printing ease of launching digital printers . Indeed, for small print runs (***), publishing works on a just-in-time approach This has boosted the market for digital printing at the expense of traditional offset printing in the publishing world. This has boosted the digital printing market to the detriment of traditional offset printing in the publishing world. And for books printed in larger quantities, offset printing is still used, although digital printing sometimes allows respond to a temporary demand episode with greater reactivity . Indeed, some short run digital printing companies can respond to a request in a very short time, sometimes less than ** hours.

In the Interforum plant (***). However, digital printing is not intended to replace offset printing for large quantities, because beyond a few thousand copies, it is not a viable alternative costs ** to **% more than offset printing .

A final challenge for digital printers is this match the quality and aesthetic diversity of offset printing This is important in France, where the population is attached to literary culture and appreciates beautiful books. This is ...

2.4 New printing technologies: responding to growing market demand

Today, the various market players (***), the following trends that adapt to demand can be added:

Industrial printing, digital graphic design (***), packaging and the Web-to-Print are rapidly developing [***]. Indeed, print-on-demand is boosted by the Web-to-Print This is defined as all digital solutions that allow you to order prints via the Internet. Digital color posted a **% growth in value between **** and ****. The large format Infotrends reports healthy growth of *% per year. Inkjet is the main technology supporting the transition from offset to digital. Increasing size and innovation in the various printable surfaces is a very promising phenomenon for digital printing. The trend is also to always more customization in digital printing. [***] The market remains under pressure of modernization

For more than ** years, French companies have been undergoing a modernisation of their equipment This includes a balance between offset and digital presses.

The main objective is to increase flexibility service while increasing the quality of prints.

The advertising industry in particular is under pressure from digital marketing and must transform itself to remain relevant. For example, printers are considering workflow automation (***). [***]

Many polycarbonate skeletons loaded with glue and plastic films are left over from cutting operations in digital printing workshops. The solution used to ...

3.1 The different players in the digital printing market

Printer and copier manufacturers

They have had to deal with the development of "paperless", both in companies and among consumers. There is a lasting trend towards "web-to-print": a business model where printed products are sold through an online platform, where customers from any sector can order a wide variety of products. This segment will be worth approximately $*** million in the global market in **** and is estimated to be worth more than $*.* billion by ****. [***]

Most of the manufacturers are located in Japan, as is the case for Epson and Canon in particular. The American company HP (***) is also in the lead.

Today, many professionals perceive printing as a service. Faced with these changes, manufacturers' business models are adapting, and manufacturers are proposing billing models based on a page or a fixed price.

Here is the value chain of the traditional printing industry

Source: ****

The services related to printing, traditionally divided between :

Prepress companies, which coordinate all the operations that precede the printing of a document. These operations are mainly intended for offset printing (***). Commercial printers, which handle printing jobs. In ****, there were *,*** commercial printers throughout France, a number that has been structurally decreasing for several years since there were more than *,*** companies ...

3.2 Increasingly digitalized distribution

With the democratization of conventional digital printers in the home since the ****s, the share of printing services consumption by home users in the printing services market is negligible compared to that of business users.

The main thing to note is the strong growth of Web-to-Print. This is an automation process that allows users to print a communication medium through a web platform. It is therefore a professional platform on which it is possible to print online. This online distribution channel already represented **% of the market in **** in France, and is growing at a rate of between ** and **% per year worldwide. This makes it a segment that is becoming difficult to ignore for many printers.

Several factors can explain this success, including

the availability of print preparation software in the cloud; cost reduction ; time savings; the trend towards hyper-customized print to stand out.

Note that large projects (***) are still done in-store and face-to-face, due to the importance of the layout and typesetting period, although printing is digital and not offset. This is why many professionals in the sector assure us that there will always be a need for the business/customer contact, although in some print functionalities it is less and ...

3.5 Entretien Florian de Drouas, directeur adjoint de la société Kapp-Lescure

Marine : Bienvenue dans la niche, le podcast qui analyse le marché de niche avec les entrepreneurs qui font bouger les lignes. Je suis Marine et je travaille chez Businesscoot, la start-up qui dépoussière des études de marché. Avant de commencer, abonnez-vous à notre podcast sur Spotify et Apple Podcast. Et maintenant, place à la niche du jour le marché de l'impression. Et pour cela, je reçois Florian de Drouas, directeur adjoint de Kapp-Lescure. Bonjour Florian.

Florian : Bonjour Marine.

Marine : Florian, pour commencer, peux tu nous présenter en quelques mots ce qu'est Kapp-Lescure?

Florian : Oui, c'est un groupe indépendant et familial d'imprimerie, composé de ** personnes et de quatre imprimeries. On fait un chiffre d'affaires d'environ ** millions d'euros. On a deux sites principaux de production. Le premier, qui est Lescure Graphic, qui est situé à Vernon, dans l'Eure, qui est une imprimerie généraliste, B*B, donc impression de tous supports de communication pour les entreprises, et le deuxième Kapp-Graphic, situé à Évreux. Et là, on est spécialisé dans l'impression de très grands formats. ça peut être des affiches de cinéma, des PLV, des cartes routières, l'emballage carton, etc. Les deux sites sont équipés de ...

4.1 Prices linked to raw materials and the range of the finished product

The main factors affecting prices are raw materials:

For physical printing, it is mainly paper, pulp and paper being subject to high price volatility. Thus in ****, the price per tonne increased by nearly **%  (***). For *D printing, it is plastic and polymers. The ink for printers is sometimes referred to as a "luxury product" with prices ranging from *** to ****€/L.

Prices:

*A, *A, flyers and business cards printing rates (***)

The rate is, of course, decreasing according to the number of copies.

Price for textile printing or personalized printing

According to Main Gauche, a site specialised in the production of customised patterned textiles, digital printing is an optimal printing technique "for patterns with many colours or gradations on light textiles".

Here again, the price is decreasing according to the quantity:

*-** printed documents: *,*€/piece **** prints: *,*€/ piece

Large format printing rate (***)

The packaging

"The packaging sector could no longer do without the benefits of digital printing. Digital printing is the ideal solution for small to medium series" (***).

There are many types of packaging and prices obviously depend on the price of the neutral support. For example, a shipping box can be bought for ***€ for **** pieces or *,**€/piece.

High-quality printing

The top ...

4.2 Digital printing's breakthrough in the decoration sector

In a **** survey conducted by FESPA, it was found that nearly * quarters of respondents within the print community described wallpaper and decorative prints as two sources of continued growth for the print field. The growth in decorating then lies precisely in the advances of digital printing: the freedom offered to designers and suppliers by digital is far above the decorations they are used to producing.

Machines such as flatbed and large-format inkjet printers, in particular, have played an important role in the evolution of interior design. Recently, relief printing solutions have emerged that give decorating service providers the ability to print multiple layers on a single substrate to achieve printed effects that mimic textured or embossed surfaces, metallic accents and raised lettering.

We can take the example of Dusty a Norwegian brand specialising in interior design. The brand has chosen to use large-format printing technologies to transform photo images of interiors into a range of printable wallpaper products and designs.

This means of decoration also offers the possibility of customizing the decoration, since by definition digital printing is used for small quantities. Thus it allows decorators to better adapt to the customer's request and to adopt a just-in-time logic due to ...

5.1 Regulatory framework

In the case of the opening of a business specializing in the field of printing, the professional is subject to the regulation of classified installations for the protection of the environment (***). The duration of the procedure is estimated at **-** months on average.

A regulatory framework also applies to inks for printed food packaging (***), these two regulations lay down conditions for all materials or articles that come into contact with food. For example, for inks, it is specified that "Printing inks applied to the non-food contact part of materials and articles shall be formulated and/or applied in such a way that substances from the printed surface are not transferred to the food contact part.

Thus, the printer is responsible for his waste (***).

Secondly, any company involved in the production and placing on the market of paper (***).

According to Xerox , the printing market is also subject to the RGPD (***).

Finally, there are * important standards to consider in the printing industry:

The standard ISO *** : **** This standard relates to the finished format of writing paper and certain categories of printed matter (***). The standard ISO ***** This standard is structured in * parts and is entitled " Graphic technology - Process control for the production of halftone ...

6.1 Segmentation

• Xerox
• Epson
• MGI Digital Technology
• Copy Top
• Copy Media
• Moo inc
• Flyer.be Groupe (ex Printconcept)
• Inesens
• Jénome Groupe
• Cimpress
• Main Gauche
• Helloprint
• Bobst
• Hybrid Software
• Fredigoni Group
• Konica Minolta France
• PrintOclock
• Exaprint
• Autajon
• Berger Levrault
• DFM
• Lexmark
• IGR Neuville Impression
• Barcodis
• Durst Group
• OKI Electric
• Teemio
• Xeikon
• Evolis (Assa Abloy)
• Riccobono
• Domino Global Brother
• Leader Print Group
• Icônes Imprimerie
• Prolaser