HarperCollins and RR Donnelley Announce Intent to Enter Into Strategic Printing and Supply Chain Management Agreement
Later this year, RR Donnelley will use the latest advances in digital printing to provide Global POD services to HarperCollins Publishers, enabling most titles to be produced anywhere HarperCollins holds the publishing rights. Most HarperCollins books will be available in each territory in any format (print or digital) in a matter of minutes.
"As a global English-language publisher, our supply chain must meet the needs of our customers everywhere to provide our authors with the broadest possible reach for their work, regardless of physical location," said Brian Murray, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers. "Our vision is to have the entire HarperCollins book catalog available for customers in all major territories and ready for delivery in minutes. This agreement with RR Donnelley provides new capabilities which will allow us to achieve this goal. In the U.S., time and money are saved by co-locating printing and fulfillment for fast moving titles. In the UK and Australia, POD technology will enable us to competitively offer the entire HarperCollins catalog to customers without expensive freight costs and long lead times."
"These changes will serve to not only increase our operating efficiency and lower costs; they will also help to reduce our environmental impact. HarperCollins remains committed to reducing its carbon footprint, and more efficient shipping and paper use will go a long way towards helping us achieve these goals," added Murray.
"The investments that RR Donnelley has made to create a broad-based digital infrastructure were designed to provide the resources that enable exactly this kind of innovative supply chain solution," said Thomas J. Quinlan, III, President and CEO of RR Donnelley. "For example, we have put our proprietary ProteusJet™ high speed digital printing presses in line with automated binding equipment for fast and efficient POD. These resources will work in combination with the sophisticated logistics capabilities we have built to manage our customers' distribution requirements. We look forward to serving HarperCollins in this breakthrough program of service."
