UK SIC 2007 · 18121
Manufacture of printed labels (SIC code 18121)
Manufacture of printed labels is UK SIC code 18121. It sits in division 18 (Printing and reproduction of recorded media) of the SIC 2007 list. On the August 2026 Companies House register, 707 active UK companies list 18121 among their SIC codes. 642 of them list it first.
Division 18: Printing and reproduction of recorded media
Most of this division is commercial print. UK companies pile into 18129, printing not elsewhere classified. It covers general print shops, digital printers, large-format and signage printers, label producers and finishing houses. Newspaper printing and pre-press work have their own codes, with far fewer companies. The typical firm here is a small independent serving local businesses. The code also holds larger trade printers that supply resellers. A growing set of online print firms sit here too, and they never meet a customer.
Who prospects SIC 18121 companies
Printers buy a distinctive mix. They need paper and consumables, equipment leasing and workflow software. More and more, they need marketing for themselves, because local search has replaced walk-in trade. That draws in agencies and web designers, and the poor-website filter still finds plenty of targets in this very visual industry. Equipment finance houses watch for growth, since a printer adding staff usually needs new kit. A recent incorporation often means a management buyout, or an experienced printer going solo. Suppliers who arrive then keep the account for years.
Lead generation for agency owners →How to read SIC 18121
SIC 18121 is a five-digit code, and the digits are not arbitrary. The first two, 18, are the division, printing and reproduction of recorded media. Add the third and you have group 181; the fourth narrows it to a class, and the fifth to the subclass, which is the level Companies House actually asks a company to pick. The whole division sits under section C, manufacturing, the broadest tier there is. Reading a code left to right therefore goes from a whole sector down to one activity.
More on how SIC 18121 is built
A company chooses its own codes when it incorporates and can change them on any confirmation statement. It may list up to four, and Companies House does not check whether they are right. That is why 18121 is worth reading as a claim the company made about itself rather than as a verified fact, and why the first-position and any-position counts above differ.
Measured on the August 2026 register, the busiest registered-office post towns for 18121 are London (78), Manchester (16), Leicester (13), Bristol (13) and Leeds (12). Those are registered-office locations, which is where the paperwork sits rather than necessarily where the work happens, so treat them as where to start looking rather than as a service area.
Using SIC 18121 as a filter
707 companies is 0.01 per cent of the 5,190,464 active companies on the UK register, and ranks 18121 4th most used of the 6 codes we track in division 18. That is the pool before any filter. Whether it is a big market for you depends on what you sell, but it is the number every other filter on this page cuts down from.
More on filtering by SIC 18121
Almost everybody who uses 18121 means it: 642 of 707 companies put it first, leaving only 65 carrying it as a secondary code. That makes it an unusually clean filter. You can match on the code alone and trust that the companies you get really are in this line of work.
These companies are spread out. London is the largest single cluster at 11 per cent and the top five post towns together hold only 19 per cent, so the remaining 81 per cent sits across the rest of the country. A regional filter narrows this list without gutting it, which makes it a reasonable code to work territory by territory.
In practice the code on its own is rarely the whole filter. Pair 18121 with an incorporation date to catch companies in their first months, when they are still choosing suppliers, or with a filing deadline to reach them while the year end is on their mind. A worked example for this code: 18121, registered office in London, incorporated in the last ninety days, which turns a 707 company pool into a list you can write to in an afternoon. Add the poor-website filter if what you sell is a website, or a recent change of officer if you sell to whoever just took the job. Every company you pull carries the Companies House record, the director's name, a verified website and a verified email, and the ones we cannot complete are not charged.
Where SIC 18121 clusters in the UK
ACTIVE COMPANIES BY REGISTERED-OFFICE POST TOWN · COMPANIES HOUSE REGISTER, AUGUST 2026
SIC 18121 companies, as leads
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About SIC 18121
How many UK companies use SIC code 18121?
707 active UK companies list 18121 (Manufacture of printed labels) among their registered SIC codes. Each company may register up to four. Of those, 642 put it first. The figures come from the August 2026 Companies House register snapshot, and count active companies only.
My business does design as well as printing. Which SIC codes should I use?
List both. A division 18 code such as 18129 covers the print side. Code 74100, specialised design activities, covers the studio work. A company can register up to four codes from any divisions. There is no need to squeeze a mixed business under one label. Listing your main revenue code first is a useful habit, but not a rule.
Is there a separate SIC code for signage and large-format printing?
No such code exists. That is why sign makers and large-format specialists sit in 18129 with general printers. Some signage firms that fabricate and install pick a manufacturing or construction installation code instead. All of these are fine. You declare your own SIC codes, Companies House does not check them, and you can revise them on a confirmation statement whenever the description stops fitting.
Find UK SIC 18121 companies
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