The claims followed a report by insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor, which found a significant year-on-year drop in the number of print and packaging firms reporting financial difficulty; the report was published just ahead of the latest ONS figures, released on Wedesday.
Begbies' research showed that the number of firms in the sector reporting financial strain fell by 73% in the first quarter of 2012, compared with the same period last year.
All other manufacturing businesses saw 'distress levels' fall by 49%, with the exception of food and beverage producers, who reported a 37% fall. There was an overall drop of 17% across all sectors.
Begbies Traynor partner Julie Palmer said manufacturing was proving to be "the star of the economy at present" and therefore the engine that could drive recovery.
"Typically, in a recession, front-end businesses, such as print and packaging, are hit hard, as clients slash spending in areas such as advertising, which has a knock-on effect for the print sector," she said.
According to Palmer, the drop in the number of printers and packaging companies reporting distress suggests that businesses are starting to increase their spend in areas such as marketing and advertising, and could indicate an upturn in the economy.
"While it is still early days, these results indicate that we may be moving out of recession," she added.
Barry Hibbert, managing director of Polestar, said that sales and margins at the group were ahead of budget in the first quarter of 2012.
"On the whole, publication volumes are holding up reasonably well, with supply and demand much closer than for some time," he added.
"The significant cut in web offset has stabilised the market somewhat; retail and spot work remains very depressed, but most printers of scale have cut reliance on this market."
Ink Shop managing director Stuart Mason was even more positive, claiming the first quarter of 2012 was the company’s "most buoyant and profitable" since 2009.
However, Mason caveats this success with the restructure of the company’s business model and marketing strategy.
"If it hadn’t changed for the better we’d be extremely disappointed. We tend to look at things much shorter term now, but I’m more confident than I have been for the last two or three years," he said.
Elsewhere, Duarte Goncalves, managing director of Cheshire-based DXG Media, said 2011 was the company’s best year in its decade of trading with sales and profits up, but added that "unrealistic competitor pricing" remained a problem.
"I tend to agree we are over the worst, but we are not out of this recession. Last year we experienced our best year to date; however, on a job by job basis margins were as tight as recent years due to pressure from unrealistic competitor pricing and increases in material costs," he said.
Despite the positive year-on-year trend, the number of businesses in difficulty increased by 55% in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the previous three months, which the insolvency specialist attributed to a traditional post-Christmas slump.
"Tough seasonal trading conditions usually create quarter-on-quarter increases in distress in January, February and March each year," said Begbies’ Palmer.
Sam Neal, managing director of Middlesex-based Geoff Neal Litho, said that, while his firm had experienced a difficult Q1, it is currently enjoying a "purple patch".
"I believe Q1 2012 to have been as tough a time as any since 2007, the volume of everyday orders was significantly down and the prices from the competition were nothing short of suicidal," he added.
"Having said that we are currently enjoying a purple patch; from what I have read and heard the general feeling is the country is doing better and that Q3 and Q4 will show a tangible improvement."
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