Blundell had been at the helm of the group for 11 years. He was previously sales director and took over from Steve Vaughan back in 2009.

He had spent a total of nearly 13 years at the business, which was acquired by US group OSG two years ago.

In a LinkedIn post, Blundell said there had been a “smooth transition” to Philip Hoggarth, who takes over from him as president of the OSG Europe business.

Hoggarth joins after just over three-and-a-half years at outsourcing specialist Capita, where he had been managing director of divisional trading.

He took over from Blundell on 2 November, while Blundell said he would remain available to the group for several months.

In a message to staff, Blundell said: “I am proud of the progress made at Communisis over my time as leader; the company has been transformed. New technology has been embraced to secure some of the biggest outsource opportunities available from some great clients.

He said Communisis had become “the watchword” for transactional communication.

“Moreover, an entirely new business has been built from scratch, serving brand owners in fast-moving consumer goods. The Communisis network now extends far beyond the UK and right across Europe. Latterly the company has successfully navigated its way from being a PLC listed business to Private Equity ownership. Whilst I take pride in the successes we have shared, I leave in no doubt that It was all of you who made the difference and helped build the Communisis we have today – so once again, thank you.”

Sales at Communisis UK fell 17% last year to £196.4m, while operating margins slipped from 5.5% to 4.1%.

Parent company Communisis Ltd made an operating loss of £7.3m due to shared service costs that were previously allocated across the group. The bottom line loss was £26.6m after a huge £14.5m writedown in the value of subsidiary investments and £1.2m in restructuring costs.