The Kent-based outfit brought in Paul Cox as commercial manager and Rob Barker as sales manager, both of whom took up their roles at the end of 2016.

Cox arrives at Chapelton from the Howard Hunt Group, having previously been with Premier Paper Group for nine years, where he was trading manager. Barker was previously sales advisor at Antalis.

Cox is mainly responsible for the purchasing of materials, storage and transport while Barker will be responsible for bringing in new business. 

Staff additions have been made to help with strategic growth and bring Chapelton's staff total up to 12, with no more recruitment planned for the time being, according to Chapelton managing director Neil Skelton.

“It’s going really well, they are really good assets to the team,” said Skelton.

“They bring some experience. We are traditionally very strong in the packaging and cartonboard market in terms of our staff and those guys come from a paper background so give us experience across the sector.”

Chapelton operates from a facility in Aylesford, Kent. Founded in 1984, it rebranded in 2015 and shortened its name from Chapelton Board Sales.

Last year, the £11m-turnover business took on a host of new products for distribution, including International Paper’s Speed-E offset, Smurfit Kappa’s Graphic Board range of products and Finland-based Plastiroll’s Jazz@heat product for food packaging.

“We’re growing and have had good growth in the last 12 months, so it’s about staying there and trying to continue without upsetting anything else really. We’re keeping an eye on what we’ve traditionally done well while trying to get into new markets and grow sales,” added Skelton.