Roadmap to reposition Egyptian printing industry as international outsourcing hub and to develop domestic market

Issue
Hambalt was engaged in partnership with a local management consultancy to conduct an assessment of the present state of the printing industry of Egypt, which is looking to join the European free trade area. The printing industry currently has 200,000 employees working in 4300 printing houses. It is currently undergoing retrenchment as demonstrated by the closure of 700 printing houses in the last two years. The aim of the project was to deliver a vision and strategy to develop and grow the industry, together with a detailed action plan and budget for all stakeholders in the industry.

Approach
Firstly, a global review of the printing industry was carried
out to develop an understanding of current trends,
themes and challenges affecting the industry worldwide. During this phase it became apparent that the view of the industry's size worldwide is far from a consolidated. Combining a number of data sources from market research reports and industry bodies gave a market size of around USD 620 billion in 2002, if package printing is included.

Secondly, a detailed, comprehensive and structured assessment of the national printing industry was carried out. This included a survey of eighty local and international industry professionals. The assessment involved the most detailed market analysis conducted to date in the country, value chain analysis and S.W.O.T. analysis. The findings were structured using an adapted Porter’s Five Forces framework.

Finally, a detailed benchmarking of the industry was carried out against the printing industries in Germany, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates ( Dubai) and the United Kingdom. The benchmarking determined the country’s relative performance in terms of market access, quality and cost leadership. The benchmarking exercise determined the ability of the local printing industry to attack competitor markets and take business from them as well as its ability to defend itself from penetration by products from competitor markets.

Outcome
The project delivered a vision of the national printing industry in ten and in twenty years’ time together with the strategic steps and detailed action plan required to fulfil the vision. The action plan addresses all the key issues that government departments, industry bodies and the private sector have to tackle in order to make a step change in the industry’s performance and achieve the vision.

The key findings, strategy and action plan were presented to the Minister of Foreign Trade and Industry as the gold standard of the consulting projects commissioned by the client to date. The recommendations have being published in the national newspapers and presented to all major printing firms via a series of industry seminars. The action plan is being agressively implemented, including the appointment of relevant parties.

Top-level summary of global review output