IoP merger opens a Pandora's box

A breakaway group of packaging professionals may be set up, following a vote to merge the Institute of Packaging (IoP) with the much larger Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IoM3).

The rebel body would be hosted by the Processing and Packaging Machinery Association (PPMA), but be independent of it, said PPMA general secretary Andrew Manly. He claimed the IoM3was "just not relevant to most of the IoP membership", pointing to its lack of involvement in topics such as paper, corrugating, production, printing and the pharmaceutical sector.

He added that the new IoM3packaging division would be just one among 16. Packaging professionals deserved their own organisation, said Manly, who claimed that as many IoP members had said yes to the PPMA's offer of help as had voted for a merger.

IoM3chief executive Dr Bernie Rickinson said the merger, expected to be complete by April, would add 2,100 members to his organisation, taking it to 22,000, and give "a single common focus" for packaging.

The PPMA board will decide this month whether to go ahead with a new group.