Behind the Growth Numbers

Davis reported on growth of about 4.1 percent in total industry shipments during the first nine months of 2004. Bear in mind, inflation is almost totally absent from the printing industry; price pressure is one of the defining conditions of our business.

For the coming year, PIA predicted growth of 2 to 3 percent in overall shipments, along with a gain of roughly 2 percent in the category of labels, packaging, wrappers, and catalogs.