And, on the "bright side"........ more GC's pursuing more jobs ...... more projects going "hard-bid"

Well, the previous post, I will admit, was a bit "gloomy", so, now, I'd like to post something that's "good news."

Several friends of mine in the reprographics industry - and friends who are knowledgeable about the GC business - are saying that, because of the recession, more GC's are pursuing more jobs than ever before. A few years ago (prior to the beginning of the bust-cycle), it was not uncommon for GC's to be selected (to do a project) by "negotiation" (between the Owner and one or few GC's) rather than be selected by "hard-bid." But, now that the construction business is down hard, and very hard in some markets in the U.S., owners are taking advantage of that by using the "hard-bid" process - the theory being that GC's are very hungry and, if there are lots of GC's bidding to do a project, the cost of that project will be less, since there will be heightened competition amongst the GC's.

So, how does this affect reprographers? Well, the more GC's who go after a project, the more sets that need to be printed (provided that CD's are not replacing printed sets!). I've heard some friends say that some projects are being pursued by tens of GC's. One friend said that one project had 40 or so GC's participating in the bid process. So, while there may be far fewer projects out for bid, the fact that more GC's are pursuing more jobs and the fact that Owners are more likely (than before) to use the"hard-bid" process, this situation hopefully brings a bit of sunshine to the reprographer community.