Business Analysis of Printing Industry: SWOT/PESTEL Analysis of Brunswick Press

This report provides a detailed analysis of the printing industry in the UK, with a focus on Brunswick Press. It includes SWOT and PESTEL analysis, competitive position through Porter’s Five Forces Model, and issues faced by the owners/managers of the business.

Business Analysis

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................2
Printing Industry Data..................................................................................................................2
Strengths, Weaknesses & Challenges Faced...............................................................................3
SWOT/PESTEL Analysis of Brunswick Press............................................................................3
Competitive Position through Porter’s Five Forces Model.........................................................5
Issues Faced by the Owner/managers of the Business................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
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INTRODUCTION
Business analysis can be defined as the analysis of a business for identification of its
needs and determination of solutions to its issues and problems. This involves identification and
articulation of the needs of the business for the changes in its needs, workings and facilitation of
changes. The following report therefore, will include explanation of primary businesses,
suppliers, customers, strengths and challenges faced along with SWOT and PESTEL analysis of
Brunswick Press. Then, the competitive position will be analysed along with identification of
issues, resources, etc. of the business.
MAIN BODY
Printing Industry Data
Entities in this industry are engaged in the process of printing of books, magazines,
brochures, tags, annual reports, security papers, diaries, maps and other products and documents
but excludes newspapers and periodicals printing that are printed four to five times a week
(Rong, Patton and Chen, 2018). UK has said to have exported printed products of worth £3.1
billion in 2018 and have imported printed products of worth £2.4 billion in 2018. Now in 2021,
the market size of the printing industry is of £9.1 billion. The industry showed a well enough
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.9% through the five years up to 2021 – 22.
It is natural that the digital alternatives that are more preferable by the customers has
constrained the performance of this industry over the last 5 years. Such digital alternatives
include e – books, online apps to make these posters and brochures, etc. which are on the rapid
growth and rapid popularity over the course of the past few years. COVID – 19 pandemic caused
violent volatility in the prices of the commodity and also caused the demand to fall drastically
(Villalba-Diez and et.al., 2019). Such an adverse outbreak led to forced closure of the businesses
and caused the customers to spend more cautiously due to the impact of the uncertain economic
conditions.
The industry’s revenue is estimated to show the growth of annual compounding rate of
0.2% over the next half decade up to 2026 – 27 and reach revenue level of £9.2 billion. But it
shall be noted that the companies in this industry are expected to face a fierce competition from
their substitutes i.e., information publication and advertising online. So, to improve the revenue,
entities are expected to introduce innovative services.
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Strengths, Weaknesses & Challenges Faced
It can be said that the printing industry in the UK possesses a moderate level of capital
investment. The main focus of the operators and organisations is on the maintenance of set level
of output along with simultaneous reduction in the costs of wages. This can be achieved through
improvement in the efficiency through investments in the proper and appropriate machineries
and equipment. It shall be noted that exhibition of the changes in the technologies is very slow
paced and depends upon the type of process employed in the printing (Heslop, 2020). New
creativities and innovations in this industry involves high speed digital printing which is on
demand and processes of hybrid printing. Volatility of revenue is also very low in this industry
which leads to significant declination in the revenue of the industry which was majorly due to
adversarial effects of global economic crisis of 2008. After that, the industry’s economic
conditions recovered which resultantly, caused the falling revenue which what due to the
declination in the popularity of the printed books to be limited.
Printing industry also experienced 249 major deals related to M&A from January 2011
till October 2021. Now, it shall be considered that only those deals are reported which are above
a certain value therefore, it is possible that not all the deals will be reported (Masod, Zakaria and
Rahim, 2021). This data of the companies relates to the acquisitions, management buy – ins,
management buy – outs and mergers. Challenges in this industry also includes issues like
enhanced demand for more presentable packaging with dynamic designing, faster services along
with the dynamic packaging which leads to drastic increase in the cost of processing but limit to
the companies to increase their prices, etc.
SWOT/PESTEL Analysis of Brunswick Press
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
 Strong position of leadership.
 Innovations driven by the customers.
 Management of human resource and skills.
 Steady recognition of the brand.
 Varied models for generating revenue
streams.
 Low supplier loyalty.
 High employee turnover at low levels.
 Easily imitable model of the business.
 Impossible to replace the current experts
without incurring of high costs.
 Lower investments in the customer service
sector.
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OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
 Shifting of customers to premium products
segment.
 Collaborating with the local players.
 Improvement in the customer base due to
increased regulations of the government.
 Online opportunities.
 Unfavourably changing demographics of
the young customers.
 Catching up by the competitors in the area
of development of the product.
 Legal actions and procedures are now
lengthy and expensive.
 Due to high turnover of workforce there is
acute shortage of the skilled workforce in
the organisation.
 Products are increasingly commoditized in
this consumer cyclical industry.
POLITICAL ECONOMIC
 Political factors affecting the entity and its
environment.
 Political stability.
 Guidelines related to taxation.
 Regulations related to trade and safety
 Laws related to employment.
 Economic factors affecting the entity and
its environment.
 Inflation and exchange rates.
 Unemployment in the industry and
economy.
 Economic growth and disposable income
of the customer.
 Purchasing power of the customers.
 Demand of the products and services.
SOCIO-CULTURAL TECHNOLOGICAL
 Social factors affecting the entity and its
environment.
 Demographics, norms, customs and
values of the individuals.
 Population of the economy itself.
 Distribution of age, income, career and
 Technological factors affecting the
operations of the business.
 Innovations in the machinery and
equipment of printing.
 Affordability of such newly innovated
machinery and equipment.
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growth.  Obsolescence of the current machinery
and equipment.
LEGAL ENVIRONMENTAL
 Legal factors affecting the entity and its
operations.
 Includes labour laws, consumer protection
laws, discrimination laws, patent laws,
etc.
 Trademarking laws affecting the
performance of the company.
 Environmental factors affecting the
operations of the entity.
 Pollution due to the running of
machineries.
 Elements of ecology like weather and
climate affecting the business.
Competitive Position through Porter’s Five Forces Model
COMPETITIVE RIVALRY
For the organisation like Brunswick Press, competition in intense in the market as there are
number of competitors and each has its own share in the market. Therefore, it shall be noted that
when competition is high there is sure possibility of price wars in the market which can disrupt a
business’ objectives.
BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS
Power of suppliers of the raw materials required by Brunswick Press shall be noted as it will be
having a significant effect on the prices charged by the business i.e., increase its prices which
will result in reduction of profitability of the business.
BARGAINING POWER OF CUSTOMERS
Power of the consumers of the products and services of Brunswick Press shall also be studied for
analysing its effect on its pricing and quality (How Porter’s Five Forces Can Help Small
Businesses Analyse the Competition, 2022.). Consumers can exercise their power when they are
in few numbers but on the other hand, sellers are numerous thereby allowing easy switching to
the consumers.
THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS
When it is easy to enter a particular industry or market then the threat of these new entrants is
more as compared to when entering the industry or market is restrictive. Such threat will result in
the decrease of the market share of the established entities.
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THREAT OF SUBSTITUTE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES
Such a threat of substituting the available products or services is more when it is for the
consumers to switch from one entity to another. This threat is impacted by the costs of switching
from on entity to another and the consumer’s interest towards such a change.
Issues Faced by the Owner/managers of the Business
Now, there are various issues faced by the owners or managers of the business whether
they are related to management or operations (Thomas-Seale and et.al., 2018). Some of these
issues includes rates of exchange of the currency of host country, stability of the currency of the
host country, how efficient the financial markets are, level of skills of the workforce, level of
education in the economy, costs of labour in the economy, level of productivity in the economy,
stage of the business cycle at which the business currently is like prosperity, recession, recovery,
etc., growth rate of the economy, rate of unemployment in the economy and rates of inflation &
interest in the economy.
Other issues faced by the owners or managers includes laws regarding pollution in the
environment i.e., air and water pollution, management of the wastes generated in such process of
operations, etc. Also, issues like stability of the politics in the nation’s economy, intervention and
bureaucracy by the government, legal framework for enforcement of the contracts, regulations
related to the trade and tariffs, laws applicable related to anti – trust, regulations relevant for the
pricing of the products or services, rates of taxes and the related incentives, legislations related to
wages i.e., minimum wages and wages for overtime,
CONCLUSION
Conclusively, it can be said that analysis of a business is necessary how a business is
impacted by the act of the influences of external environment. The above report thus explained
key business, suppliers, customers, performance, weaknesses and challenges faced by the
business along with SWOT analysis and PESTEL analysis of Brunswick Press. Then competitive
position of the organisation is analysed through Porter’s Five Forces Model. It also explained
any operational or management issues faced by the owners or managers of the business. Benefits
to the employees which are mandatory and safety regulations of the industry.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Heslop, A., 2020, November. Technological change in London’s commercial printing trades,
1980–1992. In International Conference on Design and Digital Communication (pp. 443-
455). Springer, Cham.
Masod, M. Y., Zakaria, S. F. and Rahim, R. A., 2021. AI Adoption in the Printing Industry: A
FVM perspective. Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal. 6(SI5). pp.167-171.
Rong, K., Patton, D. and Chen, W., 2018. Business models dynamics and business ecosystems in
the emerging 3D printing industry. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 134.
pp.234-245.
Thomas-Seale, L.E. and et.al., 2018. The barriers to the progression of additive manufacture:
Perspectives from UK industry. International Journal of Production Economics. 198.
pp.104-118.
Villalba-Diez, J. and et.al., 2019. Deep learning for industrial computer vision quality control in
the printing industry 4.0. Sensors. 19(18). p.3987.
Online
How Porter’s Five Forces Can Help Small Businesses Analyse the Competition. 2022. [Online].
Available through: < https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5446-porters-five-forces.html>
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