The largest print job is redistributed

This year, Coop has redistributed the largest printing contract in Switzerland - the printing of the Coop Press (a total of 2.6 million copies): Instead of seven printing plants as before, the three regional language editions Coopzeitung, Coopération and Cooperazione are to be produced at six printing sites from 2014 and also distributed from there. Of course, the Basler Zeitung Medien printing plant has been eliminated. However, it had already closed last spring and therefore ceded its share - just under half a million copies - to Tamedia's printing center in Bern. For around nine months, Tamedia printed exactly half of the total circulation of Coop-Presse at two locations (Berne, Lausanne). But this has now come to an end: the retailer, which puts the largest weekly print job out to tender every three years, has redistributed not only the BZM share, but the entire print run. This is revealed in the 2014 tariff documentation of Coop-Presse.

Less volume for Tamedia's Lausanne site

Ringier benefits most from the redistribution: Ringier Print Adligenswil now prints around one million copies, 150 percent more than before! Although the NZZ media group will print 44'000 fewer copies at its printing site in Zurich Schlieren in the future, it will print just under 100'000 more copies in St. Gallen, which is why there is now an increase of 7.5 percent to a total of 780'000 copies. Centro Stampa Ticino, the printing plant of Corriere del Ticino, retains the order for Cooperazione (126'000 copies) and benefits from a 3.4 percent increase in circulation. The Tamedia Group, on the other hand, was the only one to lose ground, although only by 3.4 percent to 714'000 copies.

What looks like little is a significant downgrade, at least for Tamedia's Centre d'Impression in Lausanne (CIL). Previously responsible for 71 percent of Coopération's circulation, it now prints 120'000 fewer copies, leaving it with a share of just under 48 percent. This is a bitter loss, all the more so as Coop had already reduced CIL's print order by 30 percent three years ago. The remaining 52 percent of Coopération's circulation will be printed by Ringier Print Adligensweil, which has almost doubled its share in Western Switzerland. Coop's goal is clear: they wanted to distribute the western Swiss print job more evenly. In return, Tamedia's printing center in Bern will be allowed to print a good 100'000 more copies of the Coopzeitung in the future, which corresponds to an increase of 34 percent there.

Coop wants to avoid cluster risks

Total circulation is now also somewhat more evenly distributed than before: Ringier has 38 percent (previously 16 percent), the NZZ Group has 30 percent (previously 29 percent), Tamedia prints 27.5 percent (previously 29.5 percent), and Corriere retains the Italian-language portion (5 percent). Roughly speaking, therefore, Ringier, NZZ and Tamedia now each have about one-third of the circulation; previously, Tamedia and NZZ had about twice as much as Ringier.

The fact that Coop distributes its print job more or less evenly across several sites has to do with transport and environmental protection considerations. But strategic aspects also play a role: at a time when printing plants are being closed (BZM, Schaffhausen), it is advisable to distribute Switzerland's largest print job in such a way that cluster risks can be avoided.

Markus Knöpfli

Coops print job 2014