Is RR Donnelley poised to embark on a major investment in book printing-on-demand facilities here in Europe?

Reading between the lines of a recent announcement made in the US, it seems it could be. The print giant has agreed an expanded global supply chain arrangement with long-term publishing client HarperCollins, encompassing printing, shipping, fulfilment and central warehousing. It's described as a "breakthrough agreement".

As part of the deal, RR Donnelley is also going to provide global POD facilities for HarperCollins - the sort of distribute-then-print model that is understandably of interest to all sorts of book publishing companies, and something that came up as a client 'want' in our recent books special. And HarperCollins is already active in POD here.

This is from the RRD statement announcing the deal. "Later this year, RR Donnelley will use the latest advances in digital printing to provide Global POD services to HarperCollins Publishers, enabling most titles to be produced anywhere HarperCollins holds the publishing rights. Most HarperCollins books will be available in each territory in any format (print or digital) in a matter of minutes."

"A matter of minutes"... sounds impressive. I did ask for more details re the how of all this, but RRD declined to provide any further comment beyond the information in the announcement, and is keeping tight-lipped on the specifics of its plans for now.

I'm not aware of any RRD book production facilities here in the UK or indeed on the continent. So the firm is either going to be setting up something of its own sharpish, or forming a partnership agreement(s) with someone who's already geared up to do it. Either way, it's likely to prove significant for HarperCollins' existing suppliers over here, of which St Ives is a notable example.