ViP's engineers are also working flat out for the foreseeable future meeting demand for the assessments.

Premier Snapshot is a diagnostic programme carried out by ViP engineers, which involves an overall assessment of a company's business, to see where improvements can be made.

Premier Paper Group chief executive Martyn Eustace said the paper merchant had agreed a two-year sponsorship deal, which will cover 50% of the fees for all diagnostics undertaken.

"Our commitment to ViP makes absolute sense and we will work closely with them to extol the benefits of Snapshot to printers across the UK," said Eustace.

The analysis is carried out over two days for companies with more than 50 employees, for which the cost is 1,000, with Premier contributing 500 towards costs.

For companies with fewer than 50 staff the check takes one day and costs 500, for which Premier will contribute 250.

The firm had been keen to give support to UK print, and Eustace said Premier saw the initiative as a way of giving something back to the industry.

He hoped that by sponsoring the initiative, more printers would sign up.

ViP project manager Juliette Butler said that any print firm on the Snapshot programme would benefit thanks to Premier's sponsorship, with the company picking up 50% of the fees for every diagnostic carried out.

She said that the plan was about challenging printers to adopt and make changes to their business themselves, once the initial assessment had been carried out.

[o] Vision in Print has also set the date for its annual conference. It will be held on 22-23 June in Stratford-upon-Avon, and will involve a number of best practice and lean manufacturing themes. Visit www.visioninprint.co.uk.

Story by Andy Scott