Print-Leeds acquired S&C Labels for £1m in February. S&C Labels is a wet label company producing bottle labels for the drinks industry, such as Magners, Newcastle Brown Ale and Marstons.

A spokeswoman for Print-Leeds said Lombard had come from a sales background at technology company LG and that he had no experience in printing. She said that under Lombard’s leadership the company hoped to expand its work in printing labels for bottled beer and water.

In a statement about Lombard’s recruitment, Print-Leeds also said it would be visiting drupa this month to look at a new press.

The spokeswoman said it would be looking at a replacement B1 press to replace S&C Labels’ Heidelberg CD102-7-LX seven-colour press. "We’ll be looking at a few companies, but mainly KBA and Heidelberg," she said.

The S&C Labels business in Huddersfield will be moving to the Print-Leeds facility later this year and the new machine will be used mainly to print labels but also for some plastics printing work.

"We’ll also be looking at ancillary equipment such as a foiling machine and a platesetter," added the spokeswoman.

She said it was still early days with the S&C Labels acquisition, but sales were already up on last year. "We aspire to be the number one label producer in the UK, with the most modern equipment," she said.