Poland has the largest print industry in the Eastern European countries of the EU, a print industry that has been growing noticeably in the last decade. There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic did impact the printing industry (like other industry sectors) heavily. Still, it is difficult to quantify the impact as the most recent revenue data Eurostat publishes dates only from 2018. As a more timely series, Eurostat publishes a production index for printing and recorded media, which gives an indication on how production volumes developed, based on 2015 averages. The most recent data point for Poland dates from March 2021.

During the height of the COVID-19 crisis in April 2020, the production volume index for Poland dropped to approximately the 2015 production average. As pre-pandemic volumes were much higher than in 2015, this represents a total decline at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic of 17%. Despite the steep drop, Poland was faring noticeably better than the western European countries. In contrast, the EU output (which excludes the UK production) dropped by 31% compared to the pre-pandemic average.

The steep drop led to a quick recovery until July. The recovery stalled for a while, with production being about 3% below the pre-COVID-19 average in late summer (based on seasonally adjusted data). By November 2020, production numbers increased again and started to surpass pre-COVID-19 levels already. The first months of 2021 show higher numbers than pre-pandemic levels as well.

Taking into account the decline and recovery, the 2020 print industry production is only down by about 3%, compared to 2019. Assuming a slight increase in prices, the revenue decline for 2020 over 2019 could be even lower. The outlook for 2021 is even brighter and should see the printing industry in Poland growing again.

Source: Eurostat

The index data gives a timely reference on how well industry sectors are doing. Less timely is the reporting of revenues. However, it does show the total industry size.

Printing industry revenues for Poland did show a constant growth in the last 10 year. Numbers grew from €2.1 billion in 2009 to almost €3.3 billion in 2018. 2019 should have brought some additional increase, but Eurostat has not published the data yet.

Source: Eurostat, digitalprintexpert.de

This series on the impact of Covid-19 on printing industry production volumes in Europe will continue. Next time, we will have a look at the printing industry in the Czech Republic (Czechia).