Name and shame for companies printing overseas

Launch of Print in Australia campaign set to target major corporations sending their printing offshore.

The crackdown comes after outrage last week when Qantas awarded its print contract to TMA, allegedly requesting that respondents to its tender source pricing from “low-cost countries”. According to Philip Andersen, (pictured) CEO of Printing Industries, the campaign is borne out of an ongoing frustration from those within the local industry who are losing valuable work to overseas competitors.

“We are increasingly seeing major corporations and governments almost surreptitiously arranging to have work printed offshore,” he said. “It is difficult to make them change their ways by confronting them directly; we want to use the industry to help identify examples of companies or government bodies that are doing the wrong thing.”

Andersen said that Printing Industries will begin campaigning through metropolitan dailies and even look for opportunities to publicise the industry on morning television programs.

Going forward, he anticipates the possibility of a website that will contain details of corporations that have taken part in these activities. “We welcome views on how we can best shame these companies into doing the right thing,” he said.

Andersen believes there is an increasing amount of companies acting in this manner. “We suspect that it’s becoming more and more prevalent,” he said. “Sometimes, it is only by accident that we discover it is going on. We want to use the industry’s collective knowledge to identify as many examples as we can.”

Those who have experience with, or know of, companies sending work overseas are urged to contact Hagop Tchamkertenian, national manager for policy and government affairs at Printing Industries by emailing hagop@printnet.com.au