Goodness me, I'm feeling a bit 'curse of PrintWeek' this morning.

Yesterday I'm writing about what an interesting bloke John Caris is, today I'm putting pen to paper, or rather fingers to keyboard, about his resignation. Talk about a bolt from the blue.

On reflection, I had a feeling of déjà vu when reading the announcement about Caris' decision to take early retirement and step down in the New Year. Back in 2006, deteriorating market conditions stymied a proposed deal to take the group private, CEO Hans de Jong stepped down, and Caris replaced him.

The intervening period could be likened to some sort of Groundhog Day-esque experience involving months of effort trying to get various deals off the ground (the QuebecorWorld merger, the HHBV buyout deal, the current buyout deal backed by Riva/Printing Holding... who knows what else) while simultaneously carrying out a massive restructuring programme involving reducing the number of employees in the group by almost two-thirds.

Caris, like his equivalent at Polestar Barry Hibbert, seemed to be one of those people blessed with boundless energy and drive to tackle this sort of stuff. He's a charismatic chap, one of the industry's really able managers and a real "player" in this crazy game of print. I'm really sorry to see him go. But I guess we all have our "life's too short" limits and Caris has reached his.