BPA wins Subway and ex-Blue Star pharma client

Business Print Australia will "start the new financial year in a strong position" after winning major deals, including a pharmaceutical client from incumbent Blue Star.

Sydney-based print manager BPA has consolidated its stable of pharmaceutical and health care clients with the print and logistics contract with Novartis Australia.

BPA also won a tender to supply print and logistics to fast food chain Subway, which was previously looked after by an unnamed agency.

"The reason we won was our ability to handle brand-managed, fast-turnaround, cost-efficient print on a national basis," said BPA marketing manager Wendy Croxford.

She would not be drawn on the value of the wins, but both clients are believed to be worth in excess of a million dollars a year each.

The print manager's growth trajectory has also included an expansion of its Botany warehouse to reach 8,000sqm. It has also bolstered its workforce in IT and account management.

Croxford would not reveal details of the firm's footprint in the pharma sector, other than to say it had "a number of clients" in the space.

Matt Aitken, executive general manager of Blue Star IQ, stressed that his company had not lost Novartis.

"For strategic and general business reasons, we chose not to renew our contract with Novartis and gave them substantial notice to ensure they had enough timeframe to transition to a new supplier and ensure business continuity." 

One of BPA's major clients is Suncorp, while elsewhere in the retail space, it has a print management contract with telco giant Vodafone, which it won in 2010, also from an incumbent Blue Star.