An effective business plan for a printing company

Sheet-fed offset printing at the current stage of development of the industry is at the peak of popularity and is in steadily high demand. This method makes it possible to obtain high quality halftone reproduction and solid tone at a low cost of equipment and consumables.

The business plan of a printing company allows you to conduct an economic assessment of the enterprise and calculate the payback period for the investment.

Analysis of trends in the development of the printing market

When analyzing the market, it is worth considering that at the moment more than half of the companies have equipment designed for printing in one way. Another 31% of companies perform work by offset printing and another non-dominant method.

Printing as a type of business has a number of risks that have become clearly visible during the crisis. Companies that specialize in the manufacture of promotional products are facing a decrease in production volumes. During the crisis, the decline ranged from 65 to 93%. Magazine producers have reduced their production turnover by 25-35%.

The largest players in the printing services market are such companies as Pushkinskaya Ploshchad, Almaz-Press, First Printing Plant, MDM-Pechat, AST, and Media-Press.

From the foregoing, we can conclude about the main activities of the printing company, which will have a stable demand:

1. Production on newsprint, which has a low cost. However, it is worth considering that services are provided by a large number of joint-stock and state-owned companies, which allows you to count on only a small rate of return. In addition, the high initial investment and the need for specialized manufacturing facilities are a constraint.
2. On the territory of Russia, the market of full-color magazines is quite well developed, but a significant part of them is still printed abroad. The reasons for this situation lie in the insufficient number of Russian printing houses that offer high quality and have a favorable pricing policy, as well as the possibility of exporting capital from the country if the account management plan is implemented by foreign companies.
3. Book production is a promising direction, since the number of published books is increasing every year. The disadvantage of such a project is the need for significant capital investments with the possibility of their return only in the long term.
4. Advertising and business products have a large range, stable demand, low requirements for investment capital.
5. Screen printing is a technology that has hardly been affected by changes in the segment. The high cost of production is determined by a large share of manual labor. Together with small circulations, this leads to low efficiency of large investments.

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Investment plan

The investment requirement of the project is 4,538,000 rubles, which, in turn, includes the purchase and installation of the necessary equipment and replenishment of working capital.

To perform the specified list of services, it is necessary to install the following equipment:

• hydraulic embossing press model HSH 70;
• offset machine DH 47 L;
• digital duplicator Riso CZ 100 A4;
• plotter SignPal Puma P II;
• electro-pneumatic dispenser model E36 KIT.

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Sales plan and pricing policy

The activity of the enterprise under consideration will be focused on the production of the following types of products:

• envelopes;
• business cards;
• leaflets;
• forms;
• directories;
• booklets;
• calendars;
• magazines;
• postcards;
• labels;
• posters;
• notebooks;
• package;
• POS materials (wobblers, dispensers, shelf talkers, labels, danglers, price tags).

The determining factor in the competition is the pricing policy of the enterprise. It is often possible to come across the opinion that at the initial stages of development, the benchmark should be taken to the low-price sector of the market, but this development path is not a promising strategy. Therefore, from the moment of launch, the company should be positioned as a participant in the medium and expensive sectors of the market, combining activities with a policy of special prices for a number of regular customers, which may include advertising agencies, design studios and corporate customers.

Thanks to the conclusion of long-term contracts with large companies that provide a full range of high quality services at attractive prices, it is possible to gain a stable source of income.

No less promising is working with advertising agencies and design bureaus that do not have their own printing base. It should be noted that this category of customers is the most demanding, since it is an intermediary between the consumer and the printing house.

The logical continuation of cooperation with design bureaus and advertising agencies is the creation of a design studio that does not require large investments, but is able to provide 10-20% of orders at the initial stage of production development.

The last three months of the year, services for the production of product calendars are in high demand. The emphasis in such orders should be on the efficiency of execution. The production of label products, for example, for soft drinks, also has a seasonal character. Targeted advertising for this group of customers, combined with an acceptable pricing policy, can give good results.

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The production cycle depends on the type of product and can range from 0 to 7 days. The duration of execution is determined by the technological processes that the product goes through. Packages, postcards and other types of souvenirs can be produced in unlimited quantities, their boom falls on 7 days. Envelope production also has no limits and is completed in one day. Booklets printing by offset method in A8-A4 format takes 3 days, catalogs, calendars and magazines - 7 days, business cards - 1 day.

Variable costs:

Fixed costs:

1. Utilities - 2,000 rubles.
2. Room rental - 35,000 rubles.
3. Communication - 1,000 rubles.
4. Delivery of products - 2,000 rubles.
5. Maintenance and repair of products - 2,500 rubles.
6. Advertising - 5,000 rubles.