L.L. Bean signs exclusive deal with Quad/Graphics

Quad/Graphics will become the exclusive printer and prepress provider for L.L. Bean catalogs beginning in January 2008.

The multi-year, multimillion-dollar agreement covers more than 65 titles and includes prepress, printing, binding and mailing.

Some Quad/Graphics' capabilities that made the deal possible include gravure technology and the ability to deliver postal savings via co-mailing and carrier-route sorting.

Prepress production for the L.L. Bean catalogs will be managed by the Quad/Imaging Service Center in Braintree, MA, and at a new prepress facility, which will be in Freeport, ME, near L.L. Bean's headquarters. Quad/Photo, Quad/Graphics' digital photography subsidiary, will handle a portion of L.L. Bean's photography at an in-house studio at the cataloger's headquarters.