Annual Report of the Press Syndicate for the year 2003

The PRESS SYNDICATE beg leave to report to the Council as follows:

During the academical year 2002-03 the Syndicate met 18 times, the main business of these meetings as usual being to consider all new proposals for publication, whether of individual books, series, journals, electronic products, or other items, and to have regular reviews of the Press's principal activities.

The Executive Summary of the Report follows. The full Report and Accounts will be posted on the Press website at http://www.cambridge.org/annual/report and will be distributed to all subscribers of the Reporter.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• In an improving economic climate, the Press recorded a surplus of £3.4 million, before contributions to the University.
• Operational performance continues to improve in both publishing and printing, but further initiatives are in hand to deliver better results in coming years.
• The Press has forged promising new collaborations with high-quality organizations outside the UK, including ground-breaking ventures with Ediciones Santa Maria in Spain and with Hitachi Software Engineering.
• Projects under development remain on schedule, with new ELT courses and Cambridge-Hitachi e-learning developments already coming to market.
• Acquisitions include the Greenwich Medical Media group and the Law in Context list, while recently acquired Roedurico Trust has exceeded expectations.
• Pension fund deficits are manageable and a funding programme has been identified.
• The North American Branch completed the acquisition of an extensive Distribution Center at West Nyack, NY.
• The programme of disposing of non-core capital assets has yielded £1.35 million of cash to date, which has been reinvested in publishing programmes. Further disposals are planned in 2004.
• The Press's publishing and printing businesses have won significant awards, as have its personnel development policies in the UK and South Africa.