Political campaigns are providing a much-needed boost for the printing sector this year.
Organizers need to print promotional material for the federal election; leadership campaigns for both of B.C.’s major political parties; provincial byelection in Vancouver-Point Grey; and harmonized sales tax (HST) referendum.
Administrative material, such as ballots and voting cards, also need to be printed, providing a healthy sales increase for printers lucky enough to get the business.
The sector has struggled because of the down economy and advances in technology that prompt political organizers to send more emails, boost social-media communication and focus on improving their websites.
“The government is spending $700,000 on printing for the HST referendum. We have people looking into that now. We’re saying, ‘Hey, how can we get some of that work?’” said Budget Printers general manager Mark Johnston.
In addition to that $700,000 Victoria plans to spend on a comprehensive voters guide that will be delivered to every B.C. household, the provincial government is also providing a total of $500,000 to be split between the yes and no sides of the referendum.
Johnston’s 45-employee company, which generates about $5 million annually, is having an exceptional April with sales up about 30% from what he would have expected had the federal election not been called.
Budget is printing both voting cards and ballots for North Vancouver, Vancouver South, Vancouver East and Vancouver Centre.
Elections Canada provides him with special paper and he must return all waste associated with the paper to ensure that no extra ballots circulate.
It’s not just commercial printers, who print pamphlets, posters and other paper material, who benefit during elections.
Button-makers, such as Babylon Buttons, and plastic lawn sign-makers, such as Richmond Plastics, also reap rewards; so do experienced promotional product-facilitators such as Talking Dog Communications owner Samantha Monckton.
Monckton produced material for former B.C. NDP leadership candidate Mike Farnworth and federal politicians such as NDP MPs Fin Donnelly and Libby Davies.
She is essentially a one-stop shop because she writes content for pamphlets, lays out pamphlets and facilitates the pamphlets’ production.
She also produces logos and arranges for the production of buttons.
“It’s a very specific task. You have to be able to visualize, market and know what issues are important while, at the same time, fitting it into a layout with almost no money,” she said.
Despite being a sole proprietor, Monckton is in the United Food and Commercial Workers union.
That union membership means that she is eligible to get work producing products for the NDP, whose candidates and members expect all products to be produced in union shops.
Federal Liberal riding services co-ordinator Shaun Govender told Business in Vancouver that his party does not reward printers on the basis of party affiliation.
“There’s no nepotism or anything like that,” he said. “If we get a good price and they have quick turnaround and decent quality, we’re going to go with them.”
Surrey’s New World Printing Inc. produced many of the party’s large candidate signs, whereas Richmond Plastics produced most of the small plastic lawn signs.
Not all plastic-bag producers are keen for the work. Bulldog Bag tends to specialize in either higher-volume plastic bags for drugstores or higher-end bags that get stuffed with products such as fertilizer.
And despite printers such as Thunderbird Press getting an approximate $150,000 boost from a provincial election, $25,000 boost from a federal election and thousands more in extra revenue from work for the Adrian Dix campaign, not all printers are interested in political print jobs.
“Even printers who don’t directly get work for a federal election will find that business picks up,” said Glenmore Printing Ltd. president Glenn Rowley.
He explained that non-political work with slightly less urgent turnaround time gets spread around as printers who do political work at critical mass.
“We don’t tend to do political work because it’s got to be cheap and, if you want to be paid, you hope that the guy you print it for wins.”