Economy's Sharp Slowdown Responsible for Drop in Sales

Sales fell 5.8% in February for the NAPL Printing Business Panel, lowering growth for the first two months of 2001 to 1.1%. Over the same period a year ago, the panel's sales were up 9.0%. The economy's abrupt slowdown is largely responsible for the downturn in sales.

It's unlikely that sales strengthened much in March. Nearly 55.0% of the printers NAPL surveys report that business slowed during the month, while just 21.0% report that business picked up. The margin was 77.8% to 14.8% in the West, 57.1% to 18.6% in the Midwest, 55.1% to 20.4% in the South, and 48.8% to 30.2% in the East.

Also, over 40.0% of printers surveyed report that work-on-hand (work-in-progress and order backlog) fell in March, nearly four times the 10.5% who report that work-on-hand increased. Finally, nearly 45.0% report that pre-tax profitability fell, more than double the 19.2% who report a rising bottom line.