By Editor Morten B. Reitoft 

The recent Printing Impressions Top 300 has been an exciting study of how we see value in our industry. The Top 300 goes back years, yet it still only shares revenue and the number of employees - it could be interesting to see the company's profits, investments, etc. - or, as we have suggested, productivity.

This article is inspired by a LinkedIn post from Screen Americas - taking the opportunity to promote themselves and their relationship with Graphic Village. Being promoted among the best 300 printers in the US is an enormous honor. I am sure Graphic Village is a super company, so the example below is ONLY because they were explicitly mentioned!

So, let's get to it!

Value can't be based on revenue alone, as you have companies with high revenue with no profit. I, and INKISH, have therefore argued that Productivity is a measure that gives you a more accurate view of a business's performance, especially since profit isn't published in the Top 300 list. Productivity can be measured in many different ways, but a simple way is to divide your revenue by your number of employees!

On January 18th, Printing Impressions followed up on Graphic Village, which grew from 2022 to 2023 from $22.7 million to $35.7 million, a fantastic growth. According to Executive Chairman Eric Kahn, the growth came from 18 acquisitions over a decade, but the six most recent since the Covid - and here is maybe why the measure WE like to see makes Graphic Village less impressive. When a company grows inorganic, you can choose so, to expand and diversify your business. According to Kahn, the acquisitions have boosted geographical reach, but looking purely at the limited numbers in the Top 300 list; Graphic Village hasn't been able to take advantage of the synergies and the investments in new technology, according to the Printing Impressions description of also technology available. Productivity has declined dramatically - and of course, this can be because competitors have improved. Still, it can also be because the acquisitions have increased headcounts, and fewer synergies have been possible to exploit.

However, the Top 300 list numbers don't add up to 100%. In the Printing Impressions Top 300 from 2022, the numbers are stated to be $22 million in revenue in 2021 and $34 million in 2022. Still, the Top 300 2023 edition says that the 2022 numbers were $22.7 and 2023 $35.7 million - which is growth but considerably smaller. However, from a productivity perspective, Graphic Village HAS then taken advantage of the synergies as the headcounts haven't increased from $23 million to $36 million - which is more than impressive, if true! It has improved its Productivity, but if sorted based on Productivity, it would end at #269, not #133.

The Productivity for 2023 is - if we can believe the numbers - only $158,667, which is well below the Top 300 average of $262,014. To put this in perspective, you have to jump to #114 with Drummond, Jacksonville, before reaching the average Productivity based on revenue divided by the number of employees. Drummond is number 78 on the list with a considerably higher income ($62.97 million) and the average productivity of the entire list - well done!

So - yet another different view on the very same numbers - but I KNOW that Productivity can be used as a parameter for comparison, which is better than revenue - so dear friends - there are still many opportunities!