One of the biggest themes of this year’s Print Franchise Review and this Sign Franchise Review is that the division between the two types of franchises is starting to blur. The commercial print franchises have been expanding into wide format and display graphics, and even, in some cases, traditional manufactured signage, such as channel letters, monuments, and other non-printed signs. This is not a new trend, and in fact parallels what we have been seeing in the general printing industry for the better part of the past decade. On the other side of the admittedly narrowing divide, the sign franchises have also been adding commercial print services, either by installing equipment in-house, via brokering, or by acquiring commercial printers and rolling them into the franchise brand. This also is not a new phenomenon, and some franchises have long offered commercial print products and services, although some—SpeedPro namely—are starting to move more strongly in the M&A direction. Others, like Alliance Franchise Brands, have a co-brand program that jointly brands a single center with both the print and sign franchise. 

We are still debating whether to combine the two franchise reports, but there is NAICS (North American Industrial Classification System) to think about. For example, when we track the printing industry in our various data series we are talking about businesses classified in NAICS 323 (Printing and Related Support Activities), which the U.S. Census Bureau defines as:

On the sign side, the Census Bureau has two different classifications for signs and display graphics: