Survey Shows Printers Increasing Profitability

PITTSBURGH—North American printers are learning to improve their profitability even as top-line challenges in sales remain. Printers participating in this year's Ratios Survey attained average profit rates of 2.7 percent on sales—up from 1.8 percent last year. This is the highest level in the past six years, but it is still not back to the pre-recession level of 3.1 percent in 2008.