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Solutions April 2006
Feature
Article
Leaving
a “Stamp” on the Printing
Industry
Now
that the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing no longer makes postage
stamps, a handful of companies
fill the manufacturing gap.
By
LaShell Stratton
For
more than 100 years, the U.S.
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
manufactured billions of stamps
for the U.S. Postal Service, but
in 2005 the bureau shut down its
presses and outsourced production
to a handful of manufacturers
and suppliers.
Until
2005, the bureau and a few private
companies shared the yearly task
of printing 50 billion U.S. postage
stamps. Currently, only three
manufacturers are certified by
the U.S. Postal Service to produce
postage stamps: Sennett Security
Products, based in Chantilly,
Va., Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd.,
Williamsville, N.Y., and Avery
Dennison, based in Pasadena, Calif.
Though material suppliers are
also certified in the stamp manufacturing
process, this certification will
no longer done by the U.S. Postal
Service.
“There
is no certification process to
print stamps outside of the general
solicitation that is issued by
the U.S. Postal Service Purchasing
department at the end of each
contract period,” says Lauren
Sposato of the community relations
division of the U.S. Postal Service.
Sposato says that each stamp manufacturer
is responsible for negotiating
and qualifying their material
suppliers. “The Postal Service
is in the process of extracting
ourselves from individual certification
of the materials supply chain,”
she says. “If there are
any interested material suppliers
who are looking to provide product
to be used for stamp production,
they are free to contact the three
stamp printers with their proposal.”
One
of the suppliers who is certified
to help produce U.S. postage stamps
is MACtac Printing Products, a
subsidiary of the Bemis Company,
which manufacturers pressure sensitive
adhesive products that include
consumer packaging labels, mailing
and identification labels and
vinyl signage applications for
trucks, buses and billboards.
The
Stow, Ohio-based supplier has
produced the self-adhesive paper
used by Sennett Security Products
for U.S. Postage stamps since
2001. “We are the only supplier
for adhesive material for Sennett
Security,” says MACtac Product
Manager Allison Hazel. “We
coat the adhesive material onto
a liner and send it through large
printer rolls,” Hazel says.
“But Sennett does the ink
work and the die cut.” The
stamps are then manufactured for
sale in coil, sheets or bendable
formats.
Just
this year, MACtac produced the
self-adhesive construction for
750 million Navajo Necklace 2-cent
stamps and 60 million Chinese
Lunar New Year stamps.
Hazel
said the self-adhesive paper for
stamps is a unique security product
with a phosphorus content that
prevents it from being used for
any other materials that MACtac
could sell to other flexo printers.
“We wouldn’t sell
this product to anyone else but
the postal service,” she
says.
Because
so few companies are certified
to manufacture U.S. stamps, print
jobs are split into thirds, for
the most part, though each company
also bids on some print contracts
with the U.S. Postal Service.
The definitive stamps that come
out annually, like the American
flag stamp, are dispersed among
the three manufacturers. Commemorative
stamps, which are released only
once, require a bid.
Hazel
said current and upcoming stamps
for which MACtac produced the
pressure sensitive material include,
in addition to the Navajo Necklace
2-cent stamp and Chinese Lunar
New year, the Hattie McDaniel
Black History commemorative stamp,
stamps for the children’s
book series, the Judy Garland
commemorative stamp and stamps
for the crops of the U.S. series.
LaShell
Stratton is assistant editor at
Print Solutions magazine. Email
her your comments at lstratton@PSDA.org.
