Various printing hubs in Accra are excited about what they describe as a boom in business this festive season.
The printing hubs which hitherto complained bitterly of low productivity during the election season tell Citi Business News business has picked up.
A few months ago in the build up to Ghana’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections, the printing hubs complained that the demand for business at the time despite being a demanding season for the industry, was low.
Marketing Manager, at Appointed Time Screen Printing Limited Charles Addo told Citi Business News business has picked up significantly.
“This year has been good. I mean it could be more but we also try to be competitive and so we look at all these things, we look at the trend and then give a price that that we may probably gain a little. You know corporate companies can order to as much as 5,000 t-shirts in a single order,” he said.
The Christmas season is known to be one of the busiest period for the printing industry.
It is during this time that most companies make huge souvenir orders.
But with the huge demands some printing hubs reveal to Citi Business News they are uncertain on meeting their targets before Christmas day.
“The first half year was very tough but we were expecting much higher orders in the remaining half. It doesn’t mean that nothing was done at all. This year hasn’t been bad. It is an improvement over last year. We are looking at about between 15-22% better than last year. We have still not reached our target this year,”
“But for this year’s performance, I’ll say the corporate orders alone have been better than last year,” one printer said.
Items that are high on the orders of corporate bodies during this period mostly include diaries, calendars, pens, mugs, caps, among others as giveaways to loyal customers and staff as a sign of appreciation.
Citi Business News’ checks across most printing houses reveal companies can be charged between 10 and 26 cedis per unit cost depending on the preferred print design and item.
For instance a print design on a mug is going for GHc7.00, GHC7.50p for printing on a cap and between GHc16-GHc18.00 fpr calendars .
Meanwhile a diary and a pen will cost 28 and 3 cedis per unit respectively.
But unlike his counterparts, Nurudeen Mohammed who is the General Manager of Dignity DTRT, manufacturers of garments, says business has been a bit slow.
“For exports the market has been overwhelming but for Christmas sales from the local market, we are fairly new so a lot of the corporate institutions and individuals are not quite aware of our operations and what our capacities are. So far it has been a quiet Christmas,” he concluded.
citibusinessnews
