Wil Wilson-Davies, head of growth at Artworker, tells us about his experience in joining the print industry and how his perception has changed since working for Artworker “I THOUGHT PRINT WAS DYING… I COULDN’T HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG’’ IIsn’t print just brochures, flyers and magazines?" Like many, I had a completely misguided view of the print industry before I joined it. I saw it as a fading industry, lumped in with DVDs and landline phones, a victim to the rise of digital media. The truth is, print isn’t dying, it’s actually a giant industry, thriving in ways I never expected. I began to realise that print certainly isn’t dying the moment I stepped into drupa’s main conference hall in June 2024, (which happened to be my first day on the job). That day, I quickly realised print might just be one of the most vast and misunderstood industries out there. While at drupa, I shared some of my initial thoughts on print with my colleague Nate Duckworth while in one of the halls. In response, he perfectly captured the essential role of the print industry – “Imagine stepping into a Tesco.” From the moment you enter to the moment you leave, print quietly shapes your entire shopping experience, from packaging, banners, uniforms, to floor graphics. This set off a chain reaction in my head as to how vast print actually is. It's everywhere. I now challenge people to try and name an industry untouched by print in a big way. It’s nearly impossible. To put it in numbers, the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF) says the global print market is worth over £700bn. That’s nearly twice the size of the gaming, music, and movie industries combined. The UK is in no way sheltered from this, being the fifth-largest producer of printed products in the world, responsible for employing nearly 100,000 people. “The print industry must be fading – after all, we live in a world of e-books, online news, and paperless offices’’, something I probably said in the past. Shock, I was wrong again. Once I began to grasp the sheer scale of print, it became clear that print was actually a growing industry which is taking on a brand-new form. The numbers don’t lie. The UK commercial print industry is growing year after year, and will continue to grow into 2030, with digital print being the fastest-growing sector. To make this even more convincing, the print industry exceeded growth estimates anticipated between 2014 to 2019, and then again between 2019 to 2024. Not bad for a “fading” industry. Unlike the predictions for most manufacturing industries in the UK, the future looks bright for print. Ultimately the boom in ecommerce has caused some notable changes in the way people buy print, and what customers now expect as a bare minimum during their experience buying printed products. In some cases, the box itself costs more to produce than the food inside. That alone speaks volumes about the power and value of print 45 www.printmonthly.co.uk March / April 2025 - Issue 353 ▲ Wil Wilson-Davies, head of growth at Artworker FRESH PERSPECTIVES / WIL WILSON-DAVIES My First Day in Print – The Front Doors of Drupa It May be Big, But is Print Not on the Decline?
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