On 22 June a group of its members met with a senior special advisor to the prime minister, with delegates participating in an industry roundtable.

The aim of this was to facilitate discussion with government and set out the contribution of the industries to the economic and social progress of the UK, while highlighting the structural and strategic support that could spur new growth.

The roundtable built on an initial meeting with No 10, attended by IPIA chair Charles Rogers, and his resulting invitation to a Business Leaders Reception hosted by deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden.

Rogers said: “Our presentation was clear, we are a huge part of the UK economy, and play a key role in every other industry and the health of our society – assist us and we will remain resilient and a key manufacturing asset for UK PLC.

“This was an important day for our collective industries. The input was simply remarkable, and there was consistent messaging from both global corporations and SMEs.”

The paper industry delegation included Puneet Gupta and Lyndsey James-Williams of PG Paper Company.

During the discussion, which the IPIA described as “passionate and productive”, the prime minister’s special advisor heard from participants on a range of areas where progress could be made to encourage growth in the print, paper, and packaging industries, and how they in turn could assist UK economic expansion.

These included energy costs and infrastructure development, material costs, recycling and the circular economy, technology innovation, export opportunities, the perception of print and paper, and the promotion of print’s positive contribution to culture and society.

“The room was filled with an air of confidence, optimism and energy from all participants,” Rogers added.

The other members of the print industry delegation included IPIA general manager Brendan Perring; Eight Days a Week Print Solutions managing director Lance Hill; Tradeprint sales and customer success director and sustainability lead Anthony Rowell; and HP business development manager for signage and decoration Jane Rixon.

Also: Marine Kerivel-Brown, international marketing manager at Duplo International; Sarah Kilcoyne-Guilliam, deputy general manager at Kingsbury Press/Bluetree Group; Simon Cooper, managing director of Solopress; and Mike Hughes, managing director at Latcham.

Hill commented: “The government special advisor was clearly very interested in what we had to say and there was some very powerful messages and statistics which conveyed the scale and importance of the industry.

“The collective group demonstrated, in a cohesive and aligned manner, just how innovative and resilient the paper, print and associated industries are, plus we are all on the same page around sustainability and how we very much lead the way in this field in the UK’s media landscape.”

Cooper added: “It was a truly unique experience and one that I hope will deliver benefits to the industry.

“One thing that stood out to me was the powerful moment where we were able to get the special advisor to realise the damage that’s unfairly been done to the image of the printing and paper industries. It’s so easy for our sectors to be demonised, and therefore we need to keep educating people around their inherent sustainability.”

The IPIA said it encourages wider representation from the sector as the process continues and asked for views and feedback to be emailed to info@ipia.org.uk.