José Maria Camacho will take up the new role of chief executive for Walstead European Union on 1 June in a move that brings the group’s Walstead Iberia, Walstead CE and Walstead Leykam under common leadership.

Camacho joined Walstead in 2016 to head up its Iberia operations. Prior to that he was the CEO at CirclePrinters.

As a result of the new structure Grzegorz Czech, a 30-year veteran at what is now Walstead CE, will step down from his role as CEO of that operation following a handover period.

He will continue to be a consultant and adviser to the group.

Walstead Leykam CEO Stefan Gutheil, who joined the business on a three-year fixed-term contract in 2022, will also remain with the group until a full handover has taken place.

The Walstead UK business, where Debbie Read took over as CEO earlier this year, is unaffected by the changes.

Group chief executive Paul Utting said the changes would allow the business to develop its offering and “remain competitive amid a challenging environment”, with much lower volumes since the pandemic and an oversupplied market.

Walstead wants to present a single offering to the market rather than the old divisional one based on the acquisitions made by the group over the past decade.

“We believe that all of our stakeholders, both internal and external, will benefit from this new structure. In particular, I believe that our customers will see improvements by having access to a wider range of the group’s services and will provide confidence that their printed materials are being produced efficiently.”

He thanked Czech for his many years of service and Gutheil for his contribution during his time at the group.

Walstead is now the only multi-site web offset printer in the UK. It is also the biggest commercial web printer in Europe with sales of €540m and 2,819 employees working at its 12 production sites. It also has gravure printing in Spain.

The group also owns digital content production specialist Rhapsody.