We haven't arrived yet, but at least we know that there's a "there" there - and that we're closing the distance between ourselves and it. With a return to normal business conditions in sight, we are already seeing a pickup in activity for mergers and acquisitions in printing and packaging in 2021. 2020 put a serious damper on industry sales, although packaging firms generally fared better than commercial printing businesses. The latest NAPCO Research/PRINTING United Alliance COVID-19 Print Business Indicators Survey tells us that toward the end of the year, more companies were starting to report upward trends in business activity than those reporting declines. Encouragingly, Alliance economists are holding to their projection of sales growth between 2.5% and 4% this year. This doesn't add up to a complete rebound for M&A activity, at least not right away. Many companies continue to struggle, and many potential sellers, focused on restoring their businesses to full health, have back-burnered their selling plans for now. In any case, it will be difficult to determine valuations until the market settles down and nervousness about the future subsides.
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