Bann took up the role on 15 June.

He has experience in postpress roles with UK-based Clowes and Australian-based printer JayPak. He replaces Andy Jack, who has been promoted.

Bann said: “I saw the job advertised at the start of the year. I was In Western Australia at the time, supervising postpress production and in charge of staff training at JayPak. 

“I saw it advertised and decided it was a dream job for me, it’s perfect for my skills, and also you always want to set yourself high standards and Heidelberg is about as high as it gets.”

Bann said he was looking for a return to the UK, after having a “fantastic experience” in Australia with JayPak. He left Clowes in 2010 after it fell into administration, having struggled during the recession.

Bann is excited at the possibilities in what is a growing market, he said. “Postpress as a whole has been growing really well recently, there was an awful lot of interest at Drupa.

“There’s been a lot of automation and quite a few changes in postpress. On the commercial side, you’ve got the new Stahlfolder TH 82P that was released at Drupa and on the packaging side, there’s a lot of interest in the Masterworks partnership that Heidelberg has signed up to as well,” he added.

Bann said that his “enthusiasm for the trade” and "hands on production experience" were the main attributes he was bringing to the role, and that his immediate focus would be making Heidelberg customers aware of its new machinery.

Heidelberg northern sales manager Phil Buttress, who Bann will report directly to, said: “We met Chris after the job was advertised and he went through the normal process, we had quite a lot of candidates and he emerged as the best.”