Print chief presses for change

Britain’s print industry must embrace green initiatives and broaden its outlook to thrive in the current climate and beyond.

“We need to move to a more customer-focused industry, and into the design era, gaining a better understanding of customers’ needs,“ said Michael Johnson, chief executive of the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF).

Speaking during a recent whistle-stop tour of Horsham, West Sussex-based Foundry Press, Mr Johnson added: “Through undertaking a range of market research, I want to help companies become more design focused. It is not expensive to do so, yet few BPIF members have made the move yet.”

The print industry was moving forward rapidly on a number of fronts, Mr Johnson explained. “Over the last few years we have created two hundred services, from lean manufacturing, waste and noise reduction to training.

“The print market is primarily focused on product at the moment, as most income comes solely from print. This alone will not sustain the industry for the long term. One of our aims for the next two years is a move towards a more marketing focus instead of just print.”

Environmental issues also form a key strand of BPIF’s strategy, he went on.

“We are trying to move the industry towards having more green credentials,” he said, “educating buyers on the best printers to use. There are not many companies offsetting their carbon throughout the UK, with only about 12 nationwide, we want to focus the print industry on being more carbon neutral and ethical in there printing practises.”

Foundry Press is one of only a handful of printers nationally to be certified as carbon balanced by reducing and compensating for CO2 emissions and to have gained the ISO 9001/2000 and ISO 14001 environmental standards.

Mr Johnson praised the company for being “a modern forward-looking business and certainly one of the best equipped printers around - one fit for the future. Foundry Press is our bread and butter of companies, innovative, actively working to improve the market and striving to offer the best service they can”.

The Federation was developing “something unique” to the print industry. “A carbon calculator, which measures the carbon output of a company. This will allow printers to gauge their carbon reductions and over the next two years give accurate figures and targets for progress.”

The UK has one of the best print industries in Europe, Mr Johnson stated – one with “a more flexible workforce here than in the wider EU, and one generally more innovative in it’s approach. We are also starting to take work back from Europe to the UK, which is a positive sign,” he concluded.

Foundry Press director Bruce Phillips said: “Under Michael’s direction, the BPIF is advancing the industry in a way that we fully support. We welcome green initiatives such as the carbon calculator as a means for the print industry to become more responsible environmentally. We were honoured to be included in Michael’s schedule and delighted to hear his views of our progress.”

Michael Johnson touring Foundry Press

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