MINNEAPOLIS - Feb. 7, 2008 - Ennis, Inc., a wholesale manufacturer of a complete line of printed business products that employs more than 6,000 people in 44 facilities throughout the United States, has joined Connect Four51, an online community of print suppliers designed to decrease cost and shorten the ordering and delivery process for the benefit of print suppliers, distributors and buyers.

Connect Four51 is a supply chain management program that removes order processing, manufacturing and go-to-market inefficiencies from the print-communication supply chain and helps create cost savings that are passed directly to the buyer. With Four51's open e-commerce platform and proven cXML integration, suppliers can eliminate time-consuming manual processes and automate order flow. In addition, Connect Four51 print manufacturers gain instant, seamless access to hundreds of print distributors and hundreds of thousands of print buyers through a single integration channel, many of whom are selecting Four51's no-cost option for integrated business management functionality using SAP Business One.

"The Connect Four51 network will increase Ennis' electronic presence and enhance our ability to reach even more distributors and buyers," said Keith S. Walters, CEO of Ennis. "The addition of Four51 to our e-commerce strategy allows us to offer our entire product line through customized buying experiences to current and future customers using the industry's leading technology platform."

Four51 connects Ennis to more than 600,000 buyers who complete approximately 200,000 transactions per month. Suppliers participating in Connect Four51 experience significant cost reduction in their ordering and manufacturing processes and, as a result, use their cost savings to fund the necessary e-commerce technology investments on behalf of other members of the value chain, primarily print distributors. Additionally, Connect Four51 suppliers are becoming better positioned to capture new and more profitable customer opportunities as a result of their e-commerce investments on the Four51 network.

Using Connect Four51, distributors and their buyers are able to search for print providers based on a variety of criteria, including specific print capabilities and services, the geographic regions they serve, the equipment they use, and even their environmental initiatives.

"A company as large and respected as Ennis joining Connect Four51 indicates that e-commerce is the future of the printed communications industry," said Mark Johnson, CEO of Four51. "Buying printed and branded products online is clearly the preferred choice of millions of print buyers today, and those who sell and supply printed and branded goods are increasingly joining Four51 to better manage and improve the process and experience for their customers. Our partnership with Ennis indicates that Four51 is on its way to becoming the standard operating platform for the purchase of indirect goods."

To learn more about Connect visit http://public.four51.com/connect or contact Eli Sackett at [email protected]