The IPG Top 50

Probably the first thing you'll notice when you look at this year's IPG Top 50 is that, for the first time, there is a new in-plant in the number one slot: Allstate Print Communication Center.

Though Allstate reported $10 million in new sales over last year and a staggering $8 million in insourcing business, those aren't the only reasons the 380-employee in-plant jumped into the lead.

The Government Printing Office (GPO), which ruled the Top 50 since we started it in 1998, decided not to participate this year. Public Printer Bruce James has been striving to transform GPO into a digital information distribution organization, with a focus on preserving and ensuring public access to federal government information. He worried that continuing to define GPO as an in-plant might undermine its other functions.

This left IPG in a quandary. Technically, because GPO does a good deal of in-house printing in its multi-level Washington, D.C., operation, it is still an in-plant, though it may be other things as well. James' efforts to modernize the perception of GPO have merit, but will its association with in-house printing really drag it down?

We left that unanswered and yielded to GPO's wishes, glad to allow Allstate to take over as the country's number one in-plant.

As for the rest of this year's Top 50, despite a languishing economy, half of the in-plants on the list experienced a growth in sales over the past year. This led to some rather large jumps in rank:

• CVS vaulted from 46 up to 18 due in part to specialty vinyl signs it now prints for its stores using variable data and a Xerox iGen3.

• The University of North Carolina moved from 38 to 30.

• Target moved from 13 up to 6.

Also, a couple of shops that had ranked higher than 50 in the past have moved onto the list this year, such as the State of Louisiana, the University of Virginia and Florida State University.

In addition, three new in-plants joined the Top 50 this year, Principal Financial Group, Gospel Publishing House and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As in previous years, despite our best efforts, we were not able to get every large in-plant to participate. The Department of Defense, the CIA, State Farm, the Watchtower Society (Jehovah's Witnesses) and a handful of others all have expansive operations, but did not want to supply us with data. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not permitted to divulge financial information, otherwise it would certainly be among the top 10.

Even some of our "regulars" are missing this year: The state of Oregon's Publishing and Distribution operation never responded. SAFECO chose not to take part while it undergoes some changes. Cigna chose the unfortunate path of outsourcing.

To see who is on this year's Top 50, click here. As a bonus for visiting the Web site, we have included the Top 65.