Archer took up his new position as head of client services at Prime this week. He had worked at Pureprint Group for more than 14 years in a variety of roles including group technical director and business development director. Most recently he was general manager of its You Love Print web-to-print wing.
Precision Proco Group chief innovation officer Jon Tolley said he had got to know Archer well through HP’s Dscoop user community. “Aaron is highly-regarded and highly-respected in the industry and it’s an opportunity for us to bring a big hitter into the business,” he said.
“I deeply respect Aaron and what he’s achieved at Pureprint. He’s been with a great company for a long time, but given the recent changes it’s a fantastic opportunity for him to join the leadership team here in this new role as we strengthen the team across the group. It’s very exciting.”
Prime, Precision Printing and Proco merged last year to form a £45m turnover multi-site group with ambitions to grow sales to £100m.
Archer’s role is focused on Derbyshire-based Prime’s personalised gifting offering, but he will also work across the group.
“We’re very pleased to have him on board and he’s hit the ground running,” Tolley added.
Archer told Printweek: “I look back fondly and proudly at what I achieved at Pureprint, including making many life friends.”
He said that working with Tolley and fellow directors Gary Peeling and Jon Bailey was “just fantastic – it feels like home and I feel like I’ve been here for months already”.
“We fitted together as a team instantly. There are lots of similarities in culture and attitude, and an in-depth understanding of the technology and how we can wield that for clients’ purposes is super-exciting. Watch this space to where the business is going to springboard to next!”
Tolley said the group had benefited from booming demand for personalised gifts during the peak Christmas season.
“We delivered 27.3 million items in the last quarter which is some going. The collaboration across all the sites has been absolutely phenomenal. Everything and anything is being personalised, it has just exploded,” he said.
The firm’s customers range from online retailers to global brands. Last year it produced personalised cereal box covers for a major pan-European promotional project for Kellogg’s.
“Many of the biggest gift retailers depend on us for high-quality products created using cutting-edge production facilities. Plus, there’s the fact that we always deliver on time and on budget, even when working to the tightest of SLAs,” Tolley added.
