Graphic Arts Industry Enterprises in Czechia

The graphic arts industry includes graphic arts print, often also termed commercial print (although including publication and specialty print in this overview), as well as newspaper print, prepress, and postpress companies. Since 2012, the number of printing establishments in Western Europe shows a steady decline—the effect of ongoing consolidation in the industry.

Central and Eastern European countries did fare better, however. The number of establishments in Czechia declined on average by 1% from 2012 to 2022 only. The number peaked in 2016, however, and the forecast expects the number of companies to show some further decline. Czechia has been profiting from printing volumes shifting from Western Europe to the CEE due to lower labor costs while being much closer to the end markets than the Far East, for example. While Czechia benefitted relatively quickly from this trend, including a growth in internal volume, rising labor costs are leading to some volumes shifting further east. The previews revenue growth will slowly reverse after a 3.7% annual revenue growth between 2012 and 2022 to a slight decline in the forecast. This will lead to the number of companies declining in the forecast as consolidation pressure increases. Overall, the number of graphic arts establishments is likely to decline from about 1,500 in 2012 to less than 1,100 by 2030.

Source: digitalprintexpert.de/2024

As in all countries, the majority of companies in the graphic arts industry in Czechia is small. Close to 80% have less than 10 employees (even after adjusting for dormant or non-productive companies). About 4% of all enterprises have more than 50 employees, which is slightly higher than the European average, driven by a number of large companies often with an export focus.

There are other important print producers that are, statistically speaking, not part of the graphic arts industry. Those are folding carton, flexible packaging, corrugated, and label printing, plus photocopy services and in-house printing. This adds another 826 print enterprises in 2022—totalling close to two-thirds of the number of graphic arts industry enterprises in Czechia.

Further Industry Data

This article is part of a bi-weekly series of pieces looking at print industry data in 24 European countries. The next article will feature Denmark. A European overview can be found here: https://whattheythink.com/data/119946-sizing-european-print-industry/

A breakout of all segments by country and timelines for the number of establishments, revenue, and employment in the graphic arts industry and other print segments can be found in the 2024 European Print Industry Sizing report. The report also features the number of companies by size class and country. The report can be purchased from the WhatTheyThink store. https://store.whattheythink.com/downloads/european-print-industry-sizing-2024/

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