Scheffer, who sold MFG to Printing.com in November 2010, has stepped down from the boards of both businesses in order to pursue other opportunities, although he remains a shareholder.

Printing.com chief executive Tony Rafferty, who will take over direct responsibility for MFG, thanked Scheffer for his contribution, adding that his departure had been amicable.

"Hans is someone I hold in the highest regard," he said. "He has done a brilliant job building the business up and running it since we took over, but now he wants to go and get involved in a few early stage online businesses and we wish him all the best in that."

Rafferty added that there were no plans to appoint a new managing director of MFG. "We've got a really stong team over here who work closely with our guys in the UK and I'll be out here most weeks, so in some ways it fits together more logically like this."

Meanwhile the firm is preparing to launch its template-driven W3P system in Belgium in the next few weeks with the Netherlands and France due to follow in September, along with Printing.com's main website.

Rafferty revealed that the firm would also be exhibiting at Graph Expo in Chicago come October on the back of its successful outing at Drupa in May.