Emeny, who was made redundant from St Ives last May, will take up the role at the Maldon, Essex plant on
4 June.

His appointment means the end of interim managing director John Munro’s tenure, six months after he joined the group, and the end of a seven-month search for a permanent successor to Jim Algar, who left Wyndeham to rejoin Polestar.

Emeny described Heron, which prints PrintWeek along with a range of titles including Esquire, Harpers Bazaar and Time magazine, as “one of the country’s foremost web offset printers”.

Paul Utting, Wyndeham chief executive, said he was “delighted to appoint an individual of Dave’s calibre” and said that the appointment was “a sign of our commitment to the publishing sector”.