The printing industry in Europe is, of course, as diverse as any other market in the world. But with considerable differences in labor costs from country to country, decreasing demand for print, and thousands of small, family-owned printing companies, Europe is changing. Bernd Zipper from Beyond Print said, at the Benelux Online Print Event 18 in Brussels, that the current number of printing companies in Europe (primarily Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) is 34,000, with an expected decline to 17,000 over the next seven or eight years. You can imagine how that will affect families, employees, and business owners.

Despite the decreasing demand for print, smaller and medium sized print buyers are fully satisfied with the products that are delivered by the many online printers in Europe, and although online print gets a lot of attention from both the media and the industry, in general, these companies still account for only a relatively small percentage of the total market. However, online printers are growing and have a huge appetite to grow even more. Many traditional printing companies have for years been delivering stationery, leaflets, and brochures to local businesses, and this commodity market has been the core business for many of these traditional printers. Today, though, online printers can produce these commodity products at much lower prices, which dramatically affects the market.

Since online printers, in general, are very good at marketing, prices seem to be in free fall. The Danish printer Lasertryk has a slogan that says, “Never has print been so cheap”—and “cheap” is the word that is emphasized.