Speaking to PrintWeek, Edwards, who will be replaced by Patrick Martell at the end of the current financial year, said that he was yet to make a decision on any personal future plans, although didn't rule out staying in the industry.

"I'll think about that when I have to time think about it, although clearly I'll do something to keep my mind in gear... and that could be anywhere," he said.

Speaking of the departure of UK sales managing director Simon Ward, which was announced on the same day, Edwards said that he was pleased Ward would be retained in a consultancy role in order to ensure a proper handover.

Edwards said that it hadn't been decided on whether there would be like for like replacements for Martell and Ward. "That's not part of the agenda yet, there will undoubtedly be an announcement in due course on the structure of the group and Pat is looking at [the new structure] as we speak."

He added: "I think the group will be in very good hands. I'm very pleased for the business and for Pat and I wish him well in what undoubtedly will be very challenging times."

Edwards leaves at a hugely difficult time for the UK economy and the printing sector. He acknowledged that the situation was likely to get worse but said that different sectors faced different challenges.

In the magazine sector Edwards noted that publishers' advertising revenues are down, and as result paginations are shrinking. "When volumes are down it makes it very difficult to get effective utilisation and regrettably this means that we had to look at all sorts of ways of reducing costs," he said.

As a result the firm is in discussions to shed around 100 jobs across its magazine sites in Andover, Peterborough, Plymouth and Roche. At a local level, 30-day consultation periods with the affected staff at the sites have already begun.

However, he denied that the company had changed its pricing strategy in the sector to combat the downturn. "Clearly pricing in the industry is unsustainable. If you take on revenue and all it does is increase your loss, what is the point?"

The cuts across the web offset sites are in addition to 70 redundancies in the groups Direct and Service Graphics divisions, which have already been made.