Neopost Awarded Sole Supplier Status for Mailroom Solutions by UK’s Largest Local Authority Purchasing Consortium

Romford, UK; October 2007 – Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation (YPO) has awarded Neopost, Europe’s largest mailroom manufacturer, a 4-year, sole supplier contract to deliver its entire range of leading mailroom products throughout the UK. With annual revenues in excess of £270m Yorkshire Purchasing is the largest formally constituted local authority purchasing consortium in the UK.

YPO provides a professional procurement service that enables its public sector customers to benefit from significant cost and efficiency savings, through access to competitively priced, quality products and the convenience of a 'one stop shop'.

As part of its ongoing strategy for development, and to continue to add value for its customers, YPO placed an OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union) notice in March 2007 to establish a National Framework Agreement for the supply of mailroom solutions for example to include equipment for franking and mailing, folding and inserting).

Neopost responded to the Notice and, together with other potential suppliers, was asked to complete a pre-qualification questionnaire covering financial and non-financial factors such as supplier acceptability, economic and financial standing, track record and supplier capacity and capability. Following this process YPO invited appropriate suppliers, including Neopost, to tender.

After a full evaluation of the alternatives, based on five key criteria – cost, quality, customer service, delivery, innovation and development – YPO found Neopost to be the clear winner. Neopost now has sole supplier status to deliver its entire range of mailroom products to YPO customers throughout the UK for the next 4 years.

YPO’s extensive customer base covers around 100 local authority areas, and includes schools, colleges and universities in addition to most major local government departments including Social Services, Catering, Transport, Highways, Building, Energy, Admin and Waste Management as well as the Emergency Services. YPO is also influential at local and central government level through the Regional Centres of Excellence and other national procurement initiatives.

For some years now, government efficiency initiatives have highlighted the value of Framework Agreements and consortia arrangements as an effective means to reduce the amount of time, money and resource expended in the public sector. Specifically, the new framework agreement underpins the recommendations of the NAO’s Postal Efficiency Report (Improving the Efficiency of Postal Services Procurement in the Public Sector) and endorses The Public Accounts Committee recent report which stated an estimated £400 million of public money was wasted last year by failing to utilise existing Agreements.

About Neopost

Neopost is Europe’s leading supplier of mailroom equipment and logistics solutions. Neopost offers the most advanced solutions for online or off-line postage, large volume mail insertions, occasional parcel delivery and logistics management and traceability.

Headquartered near Paris, France, Neopost has direct presence in the world’s top mailing and logistics markets, i.e. the US, France, the UK, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, Japan, Norway and Spain. Neopost products are sold in 90 countries.

In 2006, Neopost posted sales of €918.5m and a net income of €157.3m. In 2002, Neopost acquired Ascom Hasler, the world number three supplier of mailing solutions, and Stielow, Germany’s leading supplier of folder/inserters. Neopost is listed on the Eurolist by Euronext Paris. www.neopost.co.uk

Press contact is Tom Miller at Vector Marketing Communications
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