IWCO Direct to Close Elm City, North Carolina Plant

CHANHASSEN, Minn., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- IWCO Direct, the nation's
leading provider of integrated direct mail production services and marketing
solutions, has announced it will immediately close its facility in Elm City,
North Carolina and will transfer equipment and production operations to three
other IWCO Direct facilities in Minnesota.
IWCO Direct acquired the Elm City facility from Cox Target Media in 2007
to add new capacity to support increased use of IWCO Direct's total package
platform. The dramatic decline in mail volume in 2008 has lowered utilization
for acquisition mail that was the focus of the Elm City operation. The
company believes specific market segments will remain at lower utilization
levels for the near future.
By shifting all operations to Minnesota, IWCO Direct will be able to
cost-effectively support 200 million mail packages each month. At the same
time, IWCO Direct's Minnesota-based AMP(TM) platform is expanding to support
the shift to trigger-based, loyalty, and retention programs.
"These are difficult actions we must take to aggressively and preemptively
react to the industry-wide decline in volume. We will navigate these market
dynamics to continue to create exceptional value for our associates,
customers, and business partners," said Jim Andersen, IWCO Direct president
and CEO. "These steps will allow us to match our production capacity for high
volume mail to current demand levels while further expanding our new AMP
platform. The result will be enhanced operating efficiencies, utilization,
and productivity to deliver both postage optimization and low cost, high value
marketing solutions."
The Elm City facility has 380 employees who will be provided pay and
benefits continuity and outplacement support or, in some cases, employment
opportunities in IWCO Direct's Minnesota facilities. Minnesota operations
will expand with approximately 250 new positions.
About IWCO Direct
IWCO Direct (http://www.iwco.com) has served the direct marketing needs of
North American companies for more than 35 years. IWCO Direct is one of the
nation's fastest growing providers of direct marketing solutions, providing
direct marketing like no one else by seamlessly supplying all direct mail
production services -- print, envelope, plastic, mailing, automated marketing,
and data services -- in an integrated "total package" supply chain solution.
IWCO Direct pioneered commingling and continues to provide its customers with
dramatic postage savings and faster time to market through its proprietary
IWCO P.O.S.T. (Postal Optimization Strategy and Technologies) and
RideShare(TM) commingling and logistics management programs, as well as
AMP(TM), its automated marketing program platform.
SOURCE IWCO Direct

Debora Haskel, Vice President Marketing of IWCO Direct, +1-952-470-3295,
debora.haskel@iwco.com; or Jeron Udean, Account Supervisor, +1-612-288-2414,
jeronu@scgpr.com, or Stephanie Haugan, Vice President, +1-612-288-2404,
stephh@scgpr.com, both of Strother communications Group, for IWCO Direct