Revival on the cards for wide format print industry

Market researcher International Data Corporation (IDC) has backed the UK large format print market to recover from a poor second quarter of business, attributing its performance to the state of the economy.

According to printweek.com, Britain's large and wide-format printer market shrunk by 22 per cent between year on year. The whole of Western Europe saw a drop of 14.6 per cent in a period where only a few markets in Scandinavia welcomed growth.

IDC stated that 15,500 units were sold across the region in Q2, with devices from HP, Canon and Epson accounting for 83.7 per cent of all large format printers shipped.

The research tracks A2 to A0 and larger devices in the market, including sales of both single-function printers and multifunctional systems.

Although the outlook may appear pretty bleak in Britain, IDC research manager Julio Vial has stressed that growth in the economy will result in a more respectable set of figures.

Cited by fusionsystems.com, he commented: "The main reason for the drop in the UK and the rest of western Europe is the economy, which is showing signs of recovery so figures could pick up."

Mr Vial went on to state that new technology, from leading manufacturers like HP, will have a huge impact on the market's prospects for 2013 and beyond.