Despite an organised effort to slash its print spending, the value of Federal Government tenders awarded to printers and print management companies jumped by some 15 per cent in the 2013-14 financial year, excluding Federal Election print.

The number of print jobs also rose, by a sizeable 30 per cent. The figures don’t include print jobs awarded by media agencies on government contracts

After removing a $9.3m spend on 17 contracts for the 2013 Federal Election (which only happens every three years), print companies banked $14.8m from 317 tenders in 2014 financial year, compared to. $12.6m from 218 tenders in 2013.

[Related: Printers getting government work]

Last year’s biggest winner was Blue Star, signing 10 deals worth $2.35m, treble the size of its 2013 result of $756,000, followed by Paragon with $2.2m and Canprint with $1.95m.

Australian Paper also broke into the scene with $927,900 from five contracts to manufacture and print envelopes. The company says it is Australia’s biggest envelope printer.

Printers raking in the most in 2013 were led by Canprint with $6.3m, thanks to a $5.7m contract for printing, mailhouse and fulfilment services for the Australian Electoral Comission. Taking this out leaves Canprint with only $600,000 – meaning this year’s performance was by far better overall.

Cannprint topped the number of award contracts in 2014 with 52, followed by Paragon with 51, Union Offset with 23 with Roden Print and Packaging winning 20.

The same companies also massed contracts in 2013, Paragon leading the field with 28 followed by Blue Star with 24, Canprint 17 and Union Offset 10 – indicating a more even spread among print companies.

Toll won the biggest contract last year, a one-year $1.7m tender to print manage for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Next biggest were a $648,450 print management contract for Print Media Group and Blue Star’s $600,000 Agriculture Department win.

Big tenders for the year before were dominated by election spending, including $5.7m for Canprint, $1.7m for PMP, and $1.2m for Fergies Print & Mail. Other big ones were IPMG’s $2.8m, Computershare’s $764,000, and Print Media Group’s $661,000 ATO contracts.

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