Kmart and supermarket chain Coles, both owned by Wesfarmers, started reviewing their catalogue distribution and printing contracts in August. The Kmart contract was the first to be decided however the lucrative Coles contract is still up for grabs.

The Australian Financial Review reported that the fate of the $30m a year Coles contract will be decided in the next few weeks.

Despite the loss of the Kmart contract, Richard Allely chief executive of PMP remains positive saying, “I am really confident we will emerge from these reviews with more printing and distribution work across the Wesfarmers group.”

The Coles contracts were at the centre of a PMP controversy earlier this year, including claims that the print giant was selling undelivered catalogues to paper recyclers. PMP allegedly overcharged Coles by about $8m in 2007-08 and the retailer hired private investigators to watch PMP’s catalogue distribution centres.

Early this year, Coles moved its catalogue distribution contracts from PMP to Salmat. It also moved the majority of its catalogue printing work from PMP to AIW Printing, Franklin Press and Michael Hannan’s IPMG.

In August PMP confirmed it had finalised its tender for the new Coles contract.

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