This looks like being a monumental year for UK print's long-serving bosses.
First Brian Edwards steps down, now Mike Taylor is off too. Mike is not so much retiring - in fact he told me just the other day that he was far too young to retire - but he is stepping back from the day-to-day grind of running a big business.
Who can blame him? He's a self-made multimillionaire who could have comfortably sailed off into the sunset (or perhaps more likely, roared off in a red Ferrari) back in 2006 when he sold Fulmar to CPI.
I think it's testament to Taylor's quite exceptional drive and commitment that he not only adapted to corporate life after so many years of effectively being his own boss, but also put as much energy into running CPI UK and getting it in better shape as any person half his age.
Someone who works for the group recently described working with him as "going a million miles an hour - impossible not to enjoy if you relish a challenge". He's not everyone's cup of tea of course, but very successful people rarely are.
Taylor has lived the print dream - starting off as one man and a Kord in an old pickle factory in the early 1970s, and then building a hugely admired business in Fulmar that among many, many achievements never posted a loss in more than 30 years of trading. There was an old joke about students at print college being asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. The answer: "Mike Taylor".
He's also notable as being the last printing business owner to float their company. It's hard to see that happening again in the foreseeable future.
As an inspirational blueprint his story is hard to beat; and while upcoming generations are working in a very different 21st century printing industry there's still plenty of encouragement to be had from Taylor's tale of graft and guts.
