The organisation had represented the interests of the UK paper merchants for more than 90 years, but, according to its director Tim Bowler, after Paperlinx and Antalis decided to separately cancel their memberships, and with Premier Paper resigning a number of years ago, it was deemed at a meeting on 11 December that “the NAPM should formally cease to function as a trade association on 31 December 2013”.

“It’s sad news for the industry, but nothing is for ever and things have moved on. It’s no good thinking that the NAPM could be representative of the industry, which any trade association strives to do, without having the support of 95% of the sector,” said Bowler.

As well as the withdrawals of Paperlinx and Antalis, Bowler cited competition concerns as another factor in the NAPM’s demise.

“There was still strong support for the NAPM at UK level, but decisions have been made at a corporate level and it was getting increasingly difficult to organise meaningful meetings when one member has 40% of the UK market and the other is nudging that, you have to be so careful,” he said.

The association will be wound down over the next few months, during which time Bowler will continue to handle former members’ enquiries.

Bowler will also continue in his role as financial director of Two Sides, which was formed by the NAPM and Print Power Europe.

“I’m 62 next birthday, so it’s probably time to wind things down a little. I’ve had a great time running the NAPM and I’ll be sorry to see it go, but I will try to pick up a few things that it did, like the training, workshops and forums, because I always enjoyed those,” he added.

Bowler is also looking at the possibility of keeping the NAPM’s annual dinner going in some shape or form.

“We can’t call it the NAPM dinner anymore, but I would like to think that we can have a paper and print annual dinner to bring the sector together. It’s one of the few formal dinners left in the industry so it would be a shame to see it go,” he said.