Hands up who reacted with something along the lines of “nine years, wow” upon hearing news of the Communisis contract win of that length with Nationwide? My hand is raised here. It’s a long time since I’ve heard of a contract involving that sort of timescale. Way back when in the heyday of big magazine and newspaper supplement contracts there were decade-long deals, but that’s very last century. It seems to be a five-year max nowadays, with three increasingly the norm. So, hats off to Communisis for thinking long-term and indeed for convincing their customer to do likewise. Perhaps this will provide inspiration to other companies involved in negotiating significant deals of a similar ilk – in today’s fast-changing print supplier landscape, if customers require security of supply then commitment needs to be a two-way street. Coming hot on the heels of the BT win announced last year, it must be trebles all round at Communisis Towers. Although, such is the way of the swings and roundabouts world of big contracts like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some work heading west, too. There’s something of an information gap at present regarding what these wins will mean in terms of likely improvement to profitability at the group, one might reasonably imagine some concessions will have been made in this respect as part of the nine-year negotiations. We should learn more when Communisis releases its results in March. The City seemed to like the sound of it, though, with Communisis shares hitting a 52-week high of 44.84p over the past week. That must have resulted in a warm feeling, even for the last iceman.