Graphic Arts Industry Enterprises in Slovakia

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 Slovakia grew on average by 1.8% from 2012 to 2022 annually. The numbers peaked however in 2019 and showed some decline, likely due to the impact of the pandemic.

The forecast expects the number of companies to remain mostly flat with some decline at the end of the forecast period. Slovakia is profiting from printing volumes shifting from Western Europe to CEE due to lower labor costs while being much closer to the end markets than, say, the Far East. This will mainly affect revenues, which are expected to continue to rise, while the pressure to consolidate will keep the number of establishments flat. Overall, the number of graphic arts establishments is likely to grow from about 680 in 2012 to about 730 by 2030, which is still about 150 enterprises lower than the peak in 2019.

Source: digitalprintexpert.de / 2024

As in all countries, the majority of companies in the graphic arts industry in Slovakia are small. More than 90% had less than 10 employees (even after adjusting for dormant or non-productive companies) in 2022, a much higher rate than the average in Europe. Only 1.4% of all enterprises have more than 50 employees, also much lower than the average share in Europe.

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 347 print enterprises in 2022—which equates to about 30% of the total number of graphic arts industry enterprises in Slovakia.

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 Slovenia. A European overview can be found here.

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.

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