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Quick print profile - includes related articles on PrintImage International, its special interest groups and the 1999 PrintImage exhibition - Cover Story

American Printer - July 1, 1999

Quick printers excel at keeping their balance in a changing market, according to this PrintImage International survey

What exactly is a quick printer? There is, it seems, no simple answer to that apparently simple question. Even to those familiar with the industry, the diversity among those who call themselves "quick" printers is amazing - from the smallest of copy shops, through traditional walk-up storefront printers, to those that could easily be termed commercial printers.

As AMERICAN PRINTER set out to analyze and understand the quick print industry, we uncovered a number of interesting and revealing facts. Quick printers are not always what they appear to be, but they are a major force in the North American graphic arts industry.

To better understand the quick printing market, AMERICAN PRINTER worked with PrintImage International (formerly the National Assn. of Quick Printers or NAQP). The PrintImage International surveys referenced within this article included responses from more than 1,000 quick printers across North America. These printers ranged from multiple-outlet operations with several hundred stores and thousands of employees overall, to one single-employee operation.

The survey was conducted to get a clearer profile of a quick printer. After all, the majority of available data until recently simply lumped together commercial printers and quick printers, apparently because of the difficulty in deciding where to draw the line between the two categories.

Still, the terms "commercial printer" and "quick printer" evoke different images in the minds of those familiar with the industry - not to mention customers. Despite this fact, some printers widely viewed as too large commonly term themselves quick printers, while others apparently too small see themselves as commercial printers. In the final analysis, the distinction between commercial printers and quick printers may well hinge on entrepreneurship and the focus of the business.

Typically, those who term themselves quick printers have an entrepreneurial focus that transcends the fact that they produce printing. Being a quick printer has little to do with the size of the operation. Many entrepreneurs have become quick printers, not because of the family tradition of ink in the veins, but because they wished to be independent business people. Thus printing became one business alternative; other alternatives might have been burgers or pizzas or bagels.

This fact is better understood by looking at the composition of quick printers responding to the PrintImage International survey.

While many commercial printers trace their roots from the days of letterpress and copper etched plates, the quick printing phenomenon is relatively new. Well over half of quick printing operations were founded in the 1980s and 1990s, and thus represent the newest and most dynamic element of the commercial printing industry. The 1970s, and especially the 1980s, saw extremely rapid growth in the quick printer ranks, with 71 percent of today's quick printers founding their businesses during those two decades.

Why all this growth during the '70s and '80s? Corporate downsizing had begun, prompting forced early retirements and the need for outplaced middle managers to find a new productive and fulfilling activity. The success of xerography and the growing need of the general public and smaller businesses for ready copies also made quick printing an attractive opportunity. Quick printing - whether through a franchise or as an independent business - provided a means for entrepreneurs to become independent in a business that could be tightly controlled and in which family members could work. And, of course, there were attractive opportunities for comfortable profitability.

While the term quick printer may evoke the image of a franchise printer with a walkup counter, in fact some 85 percent of printers who think of themselves as quick printers are independent operations without any franchise affiliation. In most surveys, franchises comprise only about 13 percent of the responses, with corporate chain printers such as those operating within office supply superstores, representing the smallest category.

Moreover, independent printers often have more than one site, whereas franchise printers are primarily single-site operations. Some surveys have shown that franchise printers have fewer employees than do independent quick printers.

Quick printers are found everywhere - from the most rural areas to the largest cities. It does appear, however, that smaller markets seem to offer better support for the quick print concept. In a recent survey, more than 63 percent of responding quick printers indicate that they operate in a market of 300,000 population or less. Nearly 82 percent of quick printers run businesses in areas with fewer than one million people.

Quick printers may well be quick because of their size. Most quick printers operate in less than 10,000 sq. ft. The typical quick printer is housed in a shop boasting floor space in the range from 2,500 to 5,000 sq. ft. More than 68 percent of quick printers, according to the PrintImage survey, operate in space ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 sq. ft. Running a business in this compact space lends itself well to owner-managed businesses in which control and understanding of every operation is commonplace.

Even so, many quick printers operate from multiple locations. Although more than 80 percent of quick printers are single-location businesses, consolidation is beginning to affect the lower end of the industry just as it is impacting high-end commercial printers. Look for still more consolidation among quick printers in the future.

While the quick printing segment of the graphic arts industry is dominated by male ownership - much as the commercial printing segment - women have made considerable inroads into the quick printing arena. While slightly more than half of quick printers reported male ownership, the remainder are either owned by women or owned jointly by spouses. This family ownership element of the quick printer industry again points up the entrepreneurial aspect of the business.

Probably because it is populated by middle managers who largely came from big industry, quick printing is essentially made up of Caucasians. The PrintImage International survey shows a heavy weighting in the industry toward white ownership, although Asian and Hispanic owners enjoy an important - and growing - representation.

The PrintImage International data further indicates the entrepreneurial aspect of quick printing when the educational achievements of quick printer owners is disclosed. More than 60 percent of quick print shop owners hold one or more college degrees, and nearly 90 percent boast at least some college. Again, these owners and managers have entered the industry not because of a heritage of printing as a craft, but because of the promise of business success. Their overall level of success may well be a function of their educational attainment and academic training.

Most quick printers are owner-operated businesses. Absentee ownership does not seem to have overtaken the quick print business to the extent seen in the fast food and many other small enterprises.

The largest quick printer responding to the PrintImage International poll reported 2,250 employees, while the smallest had only one employee. The median reported eight employees.

More than half of quick printers have 10 or fewer employees, and nearly 90 percent have 25 or fewer employees. Most quick printers do not seem bent on expansion, preferring instead to maintain their businesses as small, often family-oriented, operations.

Quick print employees generally refer to workers other than the owner or owners. Since the vast majority of quick printers are owner-operated and managed, true employment could be viewed as slightly more than polling figures would indicate.

Some experts believe that a primary distinction between quick printers and commercial printers lies in whether outside sales personnel are used to generate sales. Although the majority of quick printers are perceived to be walkup businesses, a great many have sales personnel on the street. At the very least, the owner functions in the outside sales role. The PrintImage International survey indicates that more than one-third of quick printers have outside sales personnel in addition to the owner.

Successful commercial printers are specialists, focusing on market niches such as financial printing, annual reports, CD-ROM jewel box inserts, or any of hundreds of other opportunities. On the other side of the coin are commercial printers who profess to be generalists, serving business printing needs in the general market area they serve. But when it comes to generalists, nothing beats a quick printer.

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