David Herridge has joined the Stockport-headquartered group as executive director of its customer communication business.

He was previously the group development director and then managing director at Communisis, and spent seven years at that business having joined from key client Lloyds Banking Group.

Last month APS recruited former InnerWorkings and HH Global executive Tony Massey to a new executive director role focused on business development.

APS praised Herridge’s 30-plus years of experience in transactional print, marketing services and outsourcing and described him as “one of the most experienced senior executives in the customer communications space”.

Group managing director Nick Snelson said: “Having recently secured the services of Tony Massey on the APS board we’re delighted to welcome a similar industry heavyweight in David. His unrivalled knowledge of the customer communications industry will be a huge asset to help our expansion in this area.”

APS has made substantial investments in its customer communications wing, including a new 10,220sqm secure production and warehousing facility at Preston Brook in Runcorn.

Herridge said he was looking forward to working with “a brilliant executive team that is already in place alongside some new familiar faces”.

“This coupled with the ongoing investment to the customer communications business shows a real commitment in the current climate,” he added.

Herridge is currently working part-time as he and the APS team build up that side of the business, but said his position was flexible and “as it grows I will do more as required”.

The Preston Brook operation includes an inbound and outbound centre for secure print and plastic card personalisation, and is also a nationwide delivery and fulfilment centre. 

APS Group had sales of £166.8m in its most recent accounts.

A spokesperson for Communisis said that Herridge would not be directly replaced because the group had carried out an internal restructure in Q3 2020, alongside the succession plan that involved Phil Hoggarth taking over from Andy Blundell at CEO. This had resulted in a new functional structure replacing the previous divisional-led setup.