The news comes five years after Moore sold his Eclipse businesses to GI Solutions, now Go Inspire Group. 

Go Inspire CEO Patrick Headley praised Moore for his contribution to the group. 

“Simon is a consummate professional and I have massive respect for him. It’s been great to work with him and see the way he runs that business. He’s a very popular member of the board,” he said. 

“He has never changed his dedication to the business, it’s been outstanding and has never changed since we bought Eclipse.”

Headley added that the Eclipse buy had been “a great acquisition for us”.

Moore started work in 1981 as a production assistant at a publishing company, before moving to Hunterprint as an account executive. He rose through the ranks and went on to work at Hartlebury Group, subsequently TPL, before joining Charles Grant Salmon’s Flair Press where he became deputy managing director. 

He then joined Staples Group’s MPG Colour business with a brief to turn the loss-making firm around, and went on to helm an MBO at the business in 1999, with the firm subsequently renamed Eclipse and moved to a new site in Kettering. 

Eclipse was the first company in the world to have two Heidelberg Cutstars on its long-perfecting Speedmaster presses. 

The firm went on to win Printweek’s coveted Company of the Year Award in 2002. 

In 2005 Moore bought out Ben Ward and David Birkbeck, his partners in the MBO. 

“At the time we had £12m turnover and £12m in debt!” Moore recalled. 

“We subsequently bought another web press and then 4DM. It’s certainly been an interesting time.”

Moore has also helped to recruit his successor, Jon Roberts, the former managing director of Walstead Roche and most recently COO of Walstead Central Europe. He will take up the Eclipse role next month.

Moore said he would make a phased exit, initially supporting Roberts to ensure a smooth handover, and will then continue to do some consultancy work for group. 

“Beyond that, who knows? I’m keeping an open mind,” he added. 

From the Printweek archive: read Simon Moore’s ‘Big Interview’ from 2014.