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In April, alongside the opening of schools and colleges, we had a sense that book printing and exports have recovered well. This recovery was gradual with signs that demand picked up in Q3 itself. Ultimately, the feedback from the organized commercial print businesses is that the financial year 2021-22 ending on 31 March was a good bounce back from the pandemic year 2020-21.

Moreover, a significant number of the leading commercial printers have exceeded their FY 21-22 sales above the pre-Covid year of 2019-2020. Although some of this growth may be inflationary, including the increase in raw material prices the other factor could be the slowing down of the economy in the year preceding the Covid year.

Domestic textbook printing was visibly booming from March to May of this year. While it has slightly cooled down in July, book printing exports remain steady as they have throughout the past two years. Other commercial printing segments that depend on the recovery of the travel, hospitality, retail, automobile, and other industries are slowly coming back although the recovery in digital print could be a bit quicker than in offset.

Strong print recovery but how to manage inflation

We discussed the commercial print situation with Narendra Paruchuri of Pragati Offset in Hyderabad who remarked, “The first three months (April to June) of the financial year have been ok, but there is a threat of inflation over the next nine months of the financial year which silently destroys profitability. Some part of the rise in paper prices is genuine while the rest of it could be an opportunity cost. However, there is an added uncertainty in availability and delivery times also.”

Around the country, the printers who are organized and invested in technology concur that business is better than even the pre-Covid year, but one of the reasons for this is that that year (FY 2019-2020) was particularly bad for the economy and print. The economy experienced seven bad quarters coming into FY 2020-2021. Publishers such as Navneet Publications who won their school textbook printing and stationary plants have said that they had to write off the pandemic years when schools were closed. Bipin Gala of Navneet says, “By and large we have to write off the two bad years and have decided that we are now are past it – and it is again time to upgrade technology and invest in new capacities.”

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https://indianprinterpublisher.com/blog/2022/07/commercial-print-recovery/