IWCO Direct Expands Postal Issues Update

Chanhassen, MN (March 16, 2005) — IWCO Direct, a leader in integrated direct mail services, is actively monitoring postal reform efforts, changes to Standard Mail eligibility, and other developing postal issues that will effect customers, employees and the direct mail industry. To help make sense of this changing postal landscape, IWCO Direct has posted an expanded Winter 2005 Postal Issues Update to the Resources section of its web site (www.iwco.com).

IWCO Direct created the Postal Issues Update to disseminate current news and information about issues affecting the direct mail industry. The Winter edition provides a status report on efforts to draft postal reform legislation and summarizes the new rule changes for Standard Mail eligibility that go into effect June 1. Also included in the Winter edition are background on the USPS’s expected filing of a request for a five to seven percent rate increase to take effect in early 2006, an update on the status of the USPS still being considered a high-risk federal program by the Government Accountability Office, and a “by-the-numbers” look at the USPS financials from fiscal year 2004 through year-to-date fiscal year 2005.

“As a leader in direct mail production services, our business and the business of our customers is predicated on a strong Postal Service,” said Jim Andersen, IWCO Direct president and CEO. “It’s important to keep our employees and customers current on the latest trends and information that impact the direct mail industry.”

IWCO Direct works closely with the USPS and is a strong proponent of postal reform, a legislative issue with tremendous implications for the direct mail industry. In 2004, leaders from IWCO Direct visited Washington D.C. many times to meet with legislators on this issue. In January 2004, IWCO Direct hosted a visit by Minnesota Congressman John Kline (R-MN) to meet the more than 1,000 IWCO Direct employees who would be affected by a postage rate increase. In April 2004, IWCO Direct and Capital One Financial Corporation joined forces to meet with Senator Mark Dayton and Joseph V. Kennedy, General Counsel of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on behalf of Senator Norm Coleman, to continue their discussions regarding postal reform.

IWCO Direct believes that for postal reform to be effective it must address Civil Service retirement funding issues, allow for greater flexibility in pricing, enable greater network flexibility, encourage cost effective delivery of postal services, provide incentives for the USPS to operate in an economically rational manner, and strengthen regulatory oversight and transparency.

IWCO Direct, headquartered in Chanhassen, Minn., has served the needs of North American direct marketers for more than 35 years. IWCO Direct provides direct marketing like no one else by seamlessly providing all direct mail production services – printing, plastics, envelope conversion and mailing and data services – in an integrated “total package” supply chain solution. IWCO Direct’s industry experience and technology along with proprietary IWCO P.O.S.T. (Postal Optimization Strategy and Technologies) and RideShare™ commingling and logistics management programs provide its customers with dramatic postage savings and faster time to market.

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