Business News
Readers Digest Association and arvato print Management sign comprehensive partnership
Wednesday 28. October 2009 - arvato print Management GmbH, a printing services company owned by arvato Bertelsmann AG, and The Readers Digest Association, Inc., one of the worlds leading media and marketing companies, have reached an agreement on an extensive business-process outsourcing contract.
The two companies announced the deal today in New York and Gütersloh. Effective immediately, arvato print Management is responsible for RDAs purchasing and production management in a total of 35 countries in North America, Europe and Asia. For RDA in Latin America, arvato print Management will be responsible for purchasing the Asian manufacturing spend. The five-year agreement covers a purchasing volume of an estimated 400 million USD over the term of the contract.
Under the new service agreement, arvato print Management will handle the global sourcing of books, CDs and DVDs for RDA. Some of these products will continue to be manufactured by production companies in the arvato group; the remainder will be purchased from co-operation partners from all over the world.
“We are delighted that Readers Digest Association has entrusted us with the important task of coordinating its worldwide procurement management for books, CDs and DVDs, and by doing so strengthening our long lasting and successful partnership,” commented Markus Schmedtmann, a member of the arvato AG Board. He added that the agreement with Readers Digest Association is decisive for arvatos printing division in two ways: “On the one hand, the partnership is an important milestone when purposefully developing the service portfolio in the printing business, and on the other hand it marks the companys strategically important entry into a dynamically growing market.”
“Readers Digest Association is pleased to have forged a relationship with arvato to be an integral partner in our global supply chain. This agreement will complement our strategic procurement vision as we go forward creating efficiency and value to our company,” commented Albert L. Perruzza, Senior Vice President, Global Operations, Information Technology and Business Redesign for Readers Digest Association.