Earlier this year, the Graphic and Print Media Alliance (GPMA) launched a major national survey to uncover the true role that the UK’s print, paper, packaging, labelling, and graphics sectors play within the country’s industrial ecosystem.
The message was clear: while often operating behind the scenes, the print industry is far from peripheral. It is a strategic enabler of productivity, compliance, innovation and economic resilience across some of the UK’s most vital manufacturing and strategic sectors.
The research reveals that print businesses are intricately embedded in the UK’s industrial supply chains, serving sectors as diverse as pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, consumer goods, automotive, aerospace and defence. Marketing materials remain the most supplied application (64%), closely followed by packaging and labelling (56%), technical documentation, safety signage, and increasingly – functional print solutions like printed electronics and anti-counterfeit technologies.
More than half of all respondents stated that their print solutions were ‘extremely critical’ to the sectors they serve – with a further 38% describing them as ‘very important’, often underpinning compliance, branding, and traceability functions. This aligns with a broader finding: many manufacturers simply could not operate without the products and services supplied by the print industry.
