2005 Vinyl Survey

Vinyl has been the staple of the on-premise sign industry for nearly a generation, and this survey, which documents its status, is now more than a decade old. Normally, in the course of providing 18 tables of data, numerous statistics will jump out. Not so this year. Yes, a few peaks and valleys exist, but mostly these numbers will demonstrate the rock steadiness of this soft material.

This year’s 104 responses virtually match last year’s 106, so comparisons between the last two surveys are easy. This year, our responses came to us three ways: People returned surveys in business-reply envelopes, e-mailed their answers, or responded to the same survey that was posted on Signweb.

At the end of this article, we’ll provide some data on the brands of digital printers, vinyl-cutting plotters and software that our respondents use.

Here are some of the more notable results:

• This year’s survey had an unprecedented percentage of responses (87%) from independent sign companies (Table 1).

• The average number of employees per respondent (4.9) ties the old benchmark (Table 2).

• Average sales per employee ($82,785) are the lowest we’ve seen in four years of measurement (Table 3).

• In a brand-new statistic, respondents report that they use vinyl as a substrate on approximately 20% of all jobs (Table 9).

• Although cast vinyl is still preferred over calendered vinyl by approximately a 3:2 margin, our 14 franchise respondents report stocking more rolls of calendered vinyl than cast vinyl. (Table 11).

• The average number of colors of calendered vinyl kept in stock (20.3) is the second highest total in surveys dating back to 1995 (Table 12).

• Respondents are using more of most types of specialty vinyl (Table 14).

• The percentage of digitally printed signs that are being outsourced increased significantly for the fourth consecutive year (Table 16).

• Planned equipment investment in 2006 is significantly higher than in any of the previous three years (Table 18).

To view a full report, purchase the Febuary 2006 issue of Signs of the Times magazine by clicking here.

Preview:

Table 1: Respondent Profile
Type of Shop 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001
Independents 90 (87%) 80 (75%) 114 (81%) 116 (80.5%) 60 (78%)
Franchisees 13 (12%) 23 (22%) 20 (14%) 25 (17.5%) 16 (21%)
Licensees 1 (1%) 3 (3%) 7 (5%) 3 (2%) 1 (1%)
Totals 104 (100%) 106 (100%) 141 (100%) 144 (100%) 77 (100%)

Table 1 shows a high percentage of independent sign-company responses (87%) on the heels of a record-low 75% in 2004. Similarly, only one licensee responded to complete a perfect bell curve of licensee response from 2001 to 2005.

We asked if anyone’s status changed in the past year, i.e., from independent to licensee, or from franchise to independent, etc. Four respondents noted changes. One didn’t specify, but the other three changed from being a franchise to an independent. Two said their sales volumes increased, by 20% and 2%, respectively, and one reported a 15% decrease in sales volume.

Table 5: Average Annual Amount Spent on Vinyl
Type of Shop Respondents Average Amount Spent on Vinyl
Independents 81 $22,201
Franchisees 11 $41,364
Licensees 1 $60,000
Total (2005) 93 $24,813
Total (2004) 70 $17,074
Total (2003) 85 $26,683
Total (2002) 90 $23,361
Total (2001) 55 $23,518

If we go strictly by the responses we received, two of the figures in Table 5 would be significantly higher. If we include the response of an $8 million company that reported spending $2 million on vinyl in 2005, the average for independents is $46,320, and the overall average is $45,886. Only two other companies reported buying more than $100,000 in vinyl, so I decided to simply omit the one response. Consequently, the published $22,201 figure for the independents and the overall $24,813 figure fit much more in the middle of our five years of responses and, I assume, are much more accurate.