Scotlands main economic development agency has 12 regional Local Enterprise Companies, along with the agencys Glasgow headquarters, which had bought their print autonomously until now.

Under the initiative, the marketing department is pooling its buying power to put in place a series of network-wide contracts for its annual reports, events and advertisement printing.

Scottish Enterprise senior brand manager Gary McAulay said the introduction of management for buying commercial print would lead to drastic savings.

"We have a network of 13 companies spread over a wide area. When we looked at the aggregate, the savings were clear. In many cases, the regions were using the same supplier for jobs. We are working smarter and pooling resources," said McAulay.
Scottish Enterprise is currently carrying out a quality assessment of its 30-plus printers, but the eventual number has yet to be determined.

The agency has also introduced AdFast to send digital files to regional and national newspapers.

"Before AdFast we were using couriers to deliver bromide proofs or film. Now we just send PDFs its much quicker and less expensive," said McAulay.

AdFast technical support manager Rob Fogwill said the system set up at Scottish Enterprise was customised to allow it to track artwork and provide the facilities for other organisations.

AdFast was launched in 2000 by the Newspaper Society to make the regional press easier for advertisers to deal with.

Scottish Enterprise hopes to save 200m through efficiency savings in all departments over the next five years.

Story by John Davies