The Top 50

For the third year in a row IPG presents the Top 50, our ranking of the largest in-plants in the country. Each year the list gets better, and this year 15 new in-plants have been added, giving it a much different look than last year's Top 50.

We've also changed the format in which we're presenting the Top 50, allowing you to see more information at a glance, so you can more easily compare the top shops.

Finding the Top 50 wasn't easy. We started in the summer by sending out a survey to the largest in-plants on our subscription list—shops that claimed to have over 20 employees and budgets of more than $3 million. Then we spent hours reviewing past survey forms, looking for large shops. We thumbed through old issues and business cards, looking for large in-plants we hadn't heard from in a while.

Then, after the survey deadline had passed, we called nonrespondents over and over, trying to get information about their in-plants so we could include them.

Once again, university in-plants make up the bulk of this year's Top 50—36 percent. Government shops are next, with 20 percent, and insurance company in-plants moved into third place, now comprising 14 percent of the Top 50.

Several of the largest in-plants maintain their size by taking in outside commercial work. In fact, a few of the in-plants we interviewed were reluctant to call themselves in-plants because they insource so much printing from companies other than their parent organizations. But we keep them on the list because they are owned by their parent companies and do the bulk of their companies' printing.

Now find out who made this year's IPG Top 50.