Inside the $11 Billion Wide-Format Printing Industry

Competition to grab consumer attention is creating robust demand for services in the $11 billion wide-format printing industry. Thanks to digital ad fatigue, businesses look to advertise and market their products or services in a holistic way. That includes a diversity of signage in the real world.

Here are just a few areas where wide-format printing businesses, such as SpeedPro, are experiencing demand and where growth opportunities in the industry are emerging:

Building Better Business Environments

With increased competition among industries in a booming economy comes the demand for increased productivity from employees. And, everybody knows, employees that are happy and engaged in their work are the most productive workers.

Businesses across North America are improving their work environments with window graphics, wall murals and other large graphics. The right graphics can brighten workspaces and inspire employees. Replacing drab, white office walls with scenic murals, company logos, mission statements and motivational quotes can promote company culture and convey to new employees and visitors what the brand is all about.

Immersing Consumers into Brand Experiences

Millennials, today’s largest living generation with tremendous spending power, demand memorable experiences with most of their purchases. In order to capitalize, businesses seek to immerse them and consumers of all ages in captivating experiences that promote their brand.

One popular way to do that is with pop-up bars, stores, salons and other venues. Businesses using the pop-up format are utilizing wide-format printing products to pull audiences into their brand’s messaging. Products that can easily be installed and taken down are most prevalent in pop-up venues, including floor and window graphics, three-dimensional signs, retractable banners and stands, and other temporary signage.  

The pop-up trend – which is increasingly being considered a marketing mainstay – is creating demand for wide-format printers because the format is an effective marketing tool.

Grabbing Consumer Attention on the Run

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising has shown significant growth in recent years. Spending by businesses on advertising on banners, bench wraps, billboards, vehicle and fleet wraps and window graphics is strong. Businesses in the wide-format printing industry are there to meet the demand.

OOH signage on the aforementioned mediums allows businesses to build brand recognition, be seen by a wide audience and attract customers they might miss out on otherwise. OOH signage stands out to consumers because they’re used to seeing advertising on digital devices – smartphones, tablets, laptop and desktop computers – and therefore advertising in the real world stands out as memorable.

Brands that use OOH signage as well as advertise and market online have an advantage over their competitors.

What’s Next in the Wide-Format Printing Industry?

Emerging growth opportunities for wide-format printing businesses include the use of white ink for graphic designs and non-traditional substrates for signage.

Until recently, to get white in a graphic design with other colors, printers were limited to using white substrates. For anything that required white on a sign, the colored inks just would not be applied to that section so the white of the substrate could show through. But, there were few white options among those substrates, which limited the vibrancy of the white that showed through.

However, current printer technology now allows you to use white ink on a wide variety of substrates – not just white – and the vibrancy of whiteness can be adjusted to the marketer’s preference. When white ink is used as the base, other colors are more vibrant, too. Marketing professionals now have more options for signage with white in it.

Marketers also have more choices in substrates, spurred on by mounting environmental concerns. Materials that are more environmentally-friendly than PVC and other plastic sign bases, such as polyester-based fabrics, are gaining traction of traditional substrates. Polyester is often made with recycled materials and can be recycled repeatedly. Substrates made with bio-degradable materials are also on the rise.

SpeedPro is Your Entry into the Lucrative Industry

Earning potential for entering the wide-format field looks promising, as evidenced by a jump in the number of print businesses considering adding wide-format printing capabilities, according to a PrintingNews survey last year. Twelve percent of respondents said they saw adding wide-format printing as a business opportunity in 2019, which is up from 10 percent the previous year.

As solutions providers, SpeedPro franchise owners offer these and many more products and services to clients. In the growing industry, SpeedPro franchisees experience 11 percent growth in same store sales, our top 25 percent of studio owners enjoy $1,124,244 in gross sales and a gross profit of $738,448.*

We provide comprehensive initial and ongoing support and training so you and your team of two to three employees are ready to help clients and adapt to changes in the industry. Because your success matters to us, we even help you begin generating revenue before you open through our Ramp-up Program.

With 180 studios throughout North America and counting, there are opportunities in markets in the United States and Canada to open a SpeedPro franchise and grab a share of the robust and growing wide-format printing industry.

To learn more about joining a wide-format printing franchise committed to sustainability, contact us today!

*These figures are included in the 2018 SpeedPro Franchise Disclosure Document (the “FDD”) and involve the average sales information for the twenty-six SpeedPro Studios that comprise the top 25% (based on their 2017 fiscal year financial performance) of the 107 SpeedPro Studios that have been in operation for at least two years and that satisfied the other reporting criteria set forth in the FDD. Within the top 25%, 10 of the 26 SpeedPro Studios met or exceeded the average Gross Sales figure, 8 Studios met or exceeded the average Gross Profit figure, and 14 Studios met or exceeded the average Gross Margin figure. The Gross Sales, Gross Profit, and Gross Margin figures are based on each franchisee’s actual 2017 fiscal year unaudited financial statements submitted to SP Franchising LLC. Your financial results are likely to differ from the figures presented.