GPO Term Contracts Provide Consistent Work

The majority of printers will take most orders that come their way. However, more beneficial nowadays are relationships that produce a steady and expected base of business that can be counted on and scheduled in advance. Too often, printers discount the Federal Government Printing Office (GPO) for

New figures from e-Lynxx Corp.'s government printing sales division show that 1,695 U.S. firms collectively obtained $178,200,397 of work from June 1, 2004 through May 31, 2005 through orders placed under GPO programs. Of that total, 195 companies individually obtained amounts of volume ranging from $100,000 to more than $16.4 million, while an additional 487 printers added $10,000 to $100,000 in volume through GPO program work.

Many of these suppliers of printing and associated services to GPO also bid for single purchases, known as jackets, as an additional way to compliment commercial sales and fill equipment capacity. While that is a solid strategy for success in the GPO marketplace, the amount of orders produced by the private sector under programs was 89,209 compared to 36,544 one-time purchases under the jacket system. Further, the programs can carry the higher profit margin when bid correctly and enable firms to enjoy the associated guarantee of payment within 30 days.

Many print shops, however, still avoid programs since they may not be comfortable with committing to regular work because they do not know how to obtain exact information on the placement and size of the actual orders. Once this information is obtained, it becomes much easier to decide which contracts are the best fit.

As an example, a program was posted out of Washington, D.C., for training publications and textbooks. The contract, for an initial one-year period-with an option to extend the contract up to four years if the vendor supplied good performance-provided a potential bidder with a range of 1 to 120 orders per month ranging from quantities of 50 to 80,000 copies with page counts of 8 to 600. That wide range is one that that any printer is apt to walk away from without additional knowledge.

More information can be obtained by compiling a report produced from the actual print orders. When such a report is reviewed, a bidder can see that the amount of orders averaged about 50 per month, with an average run of 2,000 books consisting of 225 pages.

On a Smaller Scale

That's a big program, so let us look at another one that might fit a more moderate-sized printer: A program bid for the Philadelphia GPO informed a potential bidder that four orders of 3,500 newsletters are expected to be placed each year with page counts ranging from 24 to 56 pages. A review of this history is very accurate in regards to the stated expectations of count, but the newsletter pages average only 24, the number at the bottom end of the spectrum. To a smaller printer who is looking at negotiating the purchase of paper for this contract, that information in invaluable in both submitting a correct bid price and gaining the highest profit.

While it can be researched through GPO through an expensive and laborious process, print orders are gathered and compiled by firms. These reports can be easily downloaded by a print shop.

Program solicitations are also not considered by many printers because the solicitation can be intimidating at first glance to someone who has not sought out expert assistance. These solicitations are rarely less than 20 pages and the bidder must prepare a sometimes-lengthy quote, do it in duplicate, accompany it with repetitive forms, and be sure it arrives in hard copy prior to the specified public opening. Unlike most jacket solicitations where a bid is required within a day or even hours, programs usually allow weeks to prepare a bid.

The GPO understands that certain fixed costs, especially paper, can fluctuate during the contract period. Programs do include an escalation clause to permit renegotiation of the job cost.

If your business is hanging its hat on too few customers and needs to diversify accounts, or if you simply are surviving month to month on single jobs that are not predictable and leave you with too much open capacity, GPO programs may be a viable option.