CHAMBERSBURG, PA – Federal government printing work, through the United States Government Printing Office (GPO), to private sector printers continued its fall from FY 2009 and FY 2010 levels.

"This is unfortunate, and we are hopeful that the United States Government Printing Office will choose to reverse this trend and again rely on private sector printers for the majority of its print work," said Deborah Snider, senior vice president of e-LYNXX Corporation and president of its Government Print Management division. "In the past, the private sector has printed more than three quarters of federal printing -- delivering quality work on time and at a reasonable price.  That work to the private sector has been reduced to an ever decreasing portion over the past few years, and this is having a negative impact on an industry that is very dependent upon federal government printing. We are hopeful the third quarter might see the beginning of a new trend."

Second quarter 2011 (2Q11) volume was $79 million for April through June compared to $61 million for 1Q11, $66 million for 4Q10, $82 million for 3Q10 and $90 million awarded during 2Q10.  

Work done by the top 50 print suppliers during 2Q11 was valued at $57 million compared to $39 million awarded during 1Q11 and $45 million awarded during 4Q10. Work done by the top 50 suppliers during 2Q10 was valued at $63 million.
 
Of the more than 1,371 print suppliers that obtained GPO work during 2Q11, RR Donnelly of Chicago, Illinois, won the most work with $17,959,441 awarded to the firm. Most of this total represents one job that was awarded to RR Donnelly to print the "Medicare and You" publication for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  

Rounding out the top five GPO job winners for 2Q11 were NPC, Inc., with $4,924,688, Gateway Press of Louisville, Kentucky, with $4,446,410, Monarch Litho, Inc. of Montebello, California, with $3,114,990 and SourceLink  of Miamisburg, Ohio, with  $2,488,361.
 
To be profitable with GPO, printers must be knowledgeable of GPO rules, regulations and procedures, must use historical data to analyze opportunities, must have or obtain the expertise requisite to bidding to win with the lowest qualified bid, and must receive all job postings for which they are qualified to bid.  Once a printer fully understands the GPO marketplace, it can expect to increase its profitability from an industry average of 2%, before GPO work, to 14% or more afterwards.  Those percentages are based on a printer working with an experienced GPO bid service firm, identifying open production capacity and offering margin pricing to fill otherwise non-productive, non-revenue generating schedule openings.  This is more important than ever as the GPO brings increasing amounts of what use to be procured into its own in-house shop.