I hear you, James Cryer – Cicely Brown, British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF)

Dear Patriick,

It was refreshing to read W. James Cryer's letter in the recent edition of Print21 Online. For the last five years the British Printing Industries Federation has been running its Excellence Awards and I am proud to say that the only print quality that is seriously considered is the course-work submitted for the Apprentice of the Year award.

With the strapline: "The only awards which tell [your] customers, suppliers, employees and investors that [you] run an excellent business" it stands out from the two, much larger (trade magazine supported) events which hand out 25+ awards, predominantly for printed products.

When judging companies entering the Excellence Awards, print quality is a given. If your quality is not great and you still have a healthy bottom line you're either successfully exploiting the 'pile it high, sell it cheap' business model - or you won't be around for long.

The BPIF's mission statement is 'to promote the competitiveness and profitability of the UK printing industry' and we do this through a wide range of products and services aimed at best practice in HR, health & safety, environment, training, and other business processes. The Excellence Awards are one way of recognising and rewarding the leading companies which others can look to as examples.

We are constantly looking to innovate and more recently introduced "the Best Use of Digital Print" (only returns to the customer are really considered!), Turnaround Award and Marketing Award. You are welcome to have a look at the entry forms on www.britishprint.com under 'Industry', Excellence Awards. We would welcome your feedback!

I receive the Print21 emails regularly and think they're great! It's quite incredible how identical the issues are between the UK and Australia despite the distance. It all makes for good reading.

Thank you!

Cicely


Director of Corporate & External Affairs
BPIF - Trade Association of the Year 2003
Tel: (020) 7915 8368
Mobile: 07801 981307
E-mail: cicely.brown@bpif.org.ukcicely.brown@bpif.org.uk