Print Media Group will again print one of the biggest and highest-profile jobs in Australia, winning the $5.2m contract for the 2016 Australian Census.
The contract to print the census forms and distribute them around the country, in a job that usually takes about six months to complete.
While the ABS would not give any details of the scale of the job, the last census in 2011 included 14.5 million 18-page forms, largely made up of 11 million standard household forms, as well as 40,000 collector record books, each 128 pages long.
[Related: More printers winning government contracts]
The contract is smaller than the $6.3m awarded for 2011 because the ABS is hoping more people will instead fill out the census online next August, with a target of 65 per cent of households.
“Compared to previous censuses it will produce 327 tonnes less material, pack 21,151 less cartons of material, and travel 230,000 fewer kilometres when delivering material,” the ABS says.
PMG managing director Leo Moio is not convinced the ABS will meet its target and says the contract could be worth more if it has to order more forms.
The company won the contract over other members of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Printing Services Panel. While the ABS offered no comment this time, in 2010 it said PMG was ‘the best value for money’.
"When the evaluation committee went for a site visit, we found the company to be highly organised and professional, and well set up for project-based work,” ABS census logistics and materials manager Andrew McGovern said back then.
“They also have a relaxed, upfront attitude that is quite refreshing.”
The census job is a tough and testing assignment, requiring strict adherence to quality standards down to “sub-millimetric production tolerances and a tight production schedule under secure conditions”.
Moio says PMG is excited to again be the census printer and chalked up the contract retention to the company’s reliability and competitiveness.
“We were very reliable at getting it done on time last census and we understand to immense complexity of the job, as well as having good disaster recovery processes and capacity,” he says.
“Being able to show such a high volume and complex job in a short time also helps our reputation in the minds of other potential clients.”
Moio says the forms will be printed on offset and digital web presses, with the personalised nature of the forms a plus for PMG’s significant digital inventory.
The ABS has sent a tender request to a ‘select number’ of printers on the Department of Human Services whole of government Production Multi-Use List to source other census bulk printed items, such as reply paid envelopes.
The list has 82 companies on it including most of the usual suspects plus a bevy of smaller printers including two Kwik Kopy franchises.
Last census IPMG won a $400,000 contract to print bulk items for census collectors including 13.5 million Census Guides, 15.8 million dwelling cards, 565,000 refusal reports, and 1.34 million obligation statements.
Camerons Group also won a $1m envelope production and printing contract from the same list.
The ABS will also put out a tender for the printing of promotional materials in the first three months of next year.
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