Cowley joins the £69m business following the demise of his previous employer, The Website (Leeds).

He had only joined The Website last November, with the intention of growing its business with end-user customers and improving the service offering. The firm’s sudden failure put paid to those plans.

Prior to that Cowley had a 13-year career at St Ives.

York Mailing chief executive Chris Ingram said he was “delighted” that Cowley had joined the business.

Group sales director Norman Revill added: “The market expertise Chris brings from his time at St Ives will help to develop our business in York.”

Revill has boosted his sales team with a number of new recruits over the past year, including Alan McKellar who joined from Polestar; Craig Hall, ex-Thijsen Media Group; and Peter Mitchell who previously worked at Quad/Graphics.

The York Mailing business has grown substantially. It acquired Pindar’s Scarborough operation in 2011, and The Lettershop Group last year.

Revill said the firm had recently secured fresh long-term contracts with a number of major catalogue customers, and described Lettershop as “a gem” that was attracting major clients from the UK and overseas.

The new 48pp short-grain Goss Sunday 4000 press at Scarborough is due to go into full production at the beginning of next month.

The original installation schedule was delayed due to the administration and subsequent restructuring of the manufacturer’s French operations.