State of the Industry Report 2025

All reports in the PRINTING United Alliance State of the Industry and Print Business Outlook Series are generously sponsored by Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Key Findings

• Uncertainty created by no-one-knows-what’s-next tariff policies has hit the printing industry hard, dampening sales and depressing profit margins. Key results for State of the Industry (SOI) participants during the first quarter of 2025 include sales increasing just 0.7% on average, pre-tax profitability increasing for just 27.0%, and 58.6% delaying or considering delaying capital investment.
• Not much improvement is expected. For all of 2025, SOI participants expect their sales to grow 1.1% on average, with 40.9% expecting growth but 59.1% expecting sales to be flat or decline. Their biggest risks heading into the second half of 2025 and the percentage citing each: a downturn in the economy/recession (79.4%), tariffs and their effects on costs and supply chains (62.5%), and economic uncertainty created by Washington (55.9%).
• Reason for optimism: the virtuous economic cycle. Productivity is increasing across the American economy as businesses embrace artificial intelligence and smart robotics. Rising productivity supports healthy gains in employee compensation, strengthening consumer purchasing power and confidence, and creating the sustained, non-inflationary economic growth that lifts living standards. It is a virtuous economic cycle that will boost the American economy and the printing industry during the second half of the 2020s.
• Interest in robotics is growing. Just 9.5% of SOI participants have a robotics budget, but 10.2% plan to within a year and 25.5% plan to within three years. When asked if robotics will have a downside, 22.9% of our research panel said they will, 30.5% said they will not, and 46.6% said they are not sure. Upsides include “alleviating labor shortages” and increased automation, particularly in press and finishing operations. Downsides include “set-up and training resistance from employees, as well as initial capital costs,” and “limited capabilities: robotics lock us into certain workflows and are difficult to change when market changes.”
• Creating opportunity. SOI participants listed three steps for turning the disruption and uncertainty created by erratic tariff policies into opportunity:
  • Don’t wait for clarity. During periods of extraordinary uncertainty, the tendency is to wait for clarity. The opportunity, however, is to create clarity by moving ahead with business plans and priorities, capital investment, steps to maximize productivity companywide, promotional campaigns, product expansions, and innovation.
  • Be the expert who helps clients navigate disruption. Provide the guidance clients value by “knowing what they need in these turbulent times” and understanding their challenges well enough to “be sure we are bringing solutions.”
  • Step up market analysis. The fear and uncertainty will dissipate. Clients will begin to spend again. Prepare for the turning point by using every tool, including AI, to build a more complete, accurate picture of what’s happening and what’s likely ahead.

Relevance to the Target Audience

(Printing company owners and management teams, as well as printing industry OEMs and suppliers interested in what’s top of mind for their customers.)

• Real-world insight from your peers. A total of 194 printing company owners and executives contributed to the State of the Industry Report 2025, sharing their experiences with the issues and trends of greatest importance to our industry. Contributors represent companies with annual sales ranging from less than $500,000 to more than $300 million.
• How to effectively manage risk. Every market disruption creates opportunity that someone captures to come out of the disruption stronger than they went in. Effectively managing risk through AI applications, risk heatmaps, risk registers, and scenario planning is key to capturing that opportunity.
• The smart robotics revolution: why the future is now. The extraordinary capabilities smart robots are developing and why they will transform manufacturing on all levels, five essential steps for adopting robotic process automation, the challenges of integrating advanced robotics into current workflows, and Robotics as a Service.

PRINTING United Alliance members can download the full report below. The Executive Summary is available to everyone. If you have any questions, please contact us at ResearchTeam@printing.org.

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