The printing industry in Uganda is one of those forever agile and one of the most competitive industries in Uganda.
An industry that responds to new technology, innovation, speed, quality, great prices, diversity, flexibility, and extensive marketing. Trends are the cornerstone on which printing lives.
The 1990s came with liberalization for Uganda’s economy and this propelled many investors into the printing industry. Competition comes from both ends of the tunnel, private entities, and public parastatals.
From Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (UPPC) in the public sector to private players like MK Graphics, Vision Group, Inline Graphics as told here by MonkeyPesa, to the ever mobile army down at Nasser Road.
With the ever-changing technology, Printing In Uganda has managed to maneuver the different tides in business by employing the best machinery and tech that you could ever imagine.
Nasser Road is a major determinant in the trends printing takes in the country. Nasser Road is a one-stop center for printing for many who can access Kampala.
Despite the digital era, which enables more communication with less printing, business here has been growing, as the assembly keeps revolving with technology and trends to stay afloat and the number of existing firms is even expanding and while new entrants always come through.
It is printing, and it issuing machines which spells that there is so much technology in this sphere. By adopting tech, the printing industry is experiencing more advanced devices in digital and offset printing resulting in an easier overall workflow. Even technology leaders are looking to add more functions to such devices.
You could easily say typesetting, designing, color separation, offset printing, sorting, numbering, binding packaging, and delivery are the dominant activities in this industry and you could be right.
Entry into the printing business on a small scale can be ranging from a small typesetting business requiring about sh2m investment to a full printing house with a six-color machine that requires several million dollars.
Small scale printeries could be doing typesetting and design work. Each day she gets tens of clients interested in making identity cards, receipt books, report cards, invoice books, headed paper, and business cards earning them even up to UGX 100,000 in a day.
The pre-press machines alone, for large scale printing business, costs between sh190m to sh270m. The prices of offset printing machines, however, vary according to make, quality, and capacity.
A used A4 one-color machine, for example, goes for about sh80m, a two-color machine costs about sh250m, while a four-color machine would go for between sh400m to sh600m.
