It wants to increase its influence with government and key stakeholders. "We're working hard for the whole of the industry and want everyone to be engaged," said chief executive Michael Johnson.

The BPIF's national council has also approved opening up membership to include print management companies.

At its AGM last week the federation announced its best financial results in a decade. It finished the year with a net surplus of 132,000 even after paying 312,000 to fund its pension deficit, which now stands at 2.1m and is being "actively managed".

The BPIF also revealed that it is returning more value than ever to its members the 3m it receives in subscriptions is turned into almost 84m in added-value services.

The 28:1 return was calculated using the Trade Association Forum's official measurement process.

Outgoing president Ken Iddon spoke of the BPIF's transformation over recent years: "We now have the best trade association in this country, staffed by the most dedicated employees and supported by a growing membership happy that they are getting a return on their investment."

MSO Cleland managing director Dominic Walsh takes over as the new president, although Iddon will remain to see through the Partnership at Work initiative. The residual issues have been ironed out and it is set to go out to a ballot of Amicus members in the autumn.

Johnson said the BPIF's three main drivers for 2005-2006 were innovation and technology, people and skills, and new business opportunities. The BPIF aims to secure funding of 10m-15m between now and 2008 for a variety of projects, including the Print Academy, technology mapping and regional initiatives such as the Print Yorkshire scheme.

"Why the postcode lottery? This industry is too important not to have a share of the RDA resource," he stated. "We also need to be a powerhouse in Europe. We're currently second to Germany but I think we're catching up on them let's try to be the top dog in three years."

Story by Jo Francis