He was chief executive of Astron's Document Solutions division, which combined Edotech with Astron Print & Mail.

Astron confirmed that Ferguson was no longer with the company a spokesman said "The company does not comment on staff issues".

Edotech, PrintWeek's 2003 Printing Company of the Year, was the subject of a 130 million acquisition at the beginning of April in what Astron chief executive David Mitchell described as a "transforming acquisition".

At the time of the acquisiton, Ferguson said: "It is fair to say David [Mitchell] and I find the concept of putting the two [companies] together very exciting."

As PrintWeek went to press, Ferguson was unavailable for comment.

Story by Josh Brooks