US printer wins London 2012 Olympic ticket deal

London 2012 organisers have struck another blow to the UK printing industry by awarding the multi-million dollar Olympic ticket-printing contract to a US-based printer. This follows the decision to award the stadium wrap contract to a Seattle-based company.

The 2012 contract marks the fourth time Weldon, Williams & Lick will print tickets in the millions for the Olympics. The US company landed the deal for the Sydney games in 2000 after proving its competence at the Atlanta games in 1996. It also produced tickets for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

Britain’s biggest union, Unite, has branded the decision as a ‘kick in the teeth’ for the UK printing industry as thousands of local printers continue to lose their jobs.

According to Steve Sibbald, Unite national officer, the UK’s commercial print industry has been struggling to survive for the last four years during this economic downturn, “This contract would have been a huge boost to many businesses and their workers.

“The billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money spent on the Olympics are supposed to benefit the UK economy. I don’t see how awarding this contact to an American firm will benefit UK workers or the UK print industry. This appalling decision is a kick in the teeth to print workers and businesses in the UK,” Sibbald said.

However the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has defended its decision after backlash from British politicians.

"The company which won the bid has worked on several previous Games, met all of our criteria around security, budget and scale and has specialist systems in place to personalise, print and package tickets on the scale we require,” a LOCOG spokesperson said.

The LOCOG decision continues to weaken the UK printing industry’s home field advantage as all 336 individual wrap panels set to ring the London Olympic Stadium (pictured) are being produced in the US. The Dow Chemical Company won the £6 million (AU$9.46 million) wrap project late-2011.



Dow contracted Seattle-based fabric printer, Rainier, to produce and print the entire wrap, as well as supply the ink. Installation of the wrap will be completed by spring 2012.