The fact that the sector is going through its most dramatic period of structural change since the switch from letterpress to offset lithography is hardly a surprise. However, right now it’s not only advances in technology that are driving change, it’s the industry itself and the way that businesses operate that are also being forced to evolve rapidly.

"For the first time in its history, the ranking of the 500 largest print companies includes companies with sales of less than £500,000 - three to be precise. Putting that into the context of the 10-year industry performance indicators in the report, then speed of change is breathtaking," said PrintWeek editor Darryl Danielli.

Historically, the sector, in terms of company size, has been a typical pyramid: a handful of larger groups at the top spreading into a broad base of small companies making up the bulk of the industry at the bottom (around 85% of UK print companies employ fewer than 20 staff).

However, this structure is changing to an hourglass model. Prior to 2007, this change was largely expected to be driven by mergers and acquisitions (M&A) among the medium-sized firms, creating more larger-sized groups, which in theory would benefit from economies of scale and be able to compete more effectively in a commodity-style market. However, while M&A activity has played its part, largely through acquisitions out of administration (there are 72 M&A deals in this year’s Top 500 report, compared to 44 in 2008), what we’ve seen over the past 18 months is a recession-fuelled rapid acceleration of the rate of change.

"Not only is the Top 500 a peerless barometer of the UK print industry, it is also an invaluable tool that enables companies to benchmark themselves against their rivals in a whole raft of metrics - well beyond simple sales and profits - to key performance indicators such as sales per employee and return on capital employed," said Danielli.

"In a market that is changing as rapidly as ours, the Top 500 is essential reading for anyone in the print industry."

This year’s Top 500 supplement is only being mailed to subscribers of PrintWeek and the principals of the Top 500 companies. If you would like to buy a copy of the 68pp state-of-the-nation report, produced with the help of leading accountancy firm Grant Thornton, please email kathrine.bradley@haymarket.com or call  020 8267 4009. Each report costs £50. Alternatively, for a limited period, it can be obtained free-of-charge by subscribing to PrintWeek for a special-offer rate of £89. For more information on subscribing call 08451 557355 (quoting ref: Top 500).