Beacon Press chairman Mark Fairbrass said Owers had joined the Uckfield-based printer in a specially created role.

This is a role that Owers is particularly good at. We are excited by his appointment, said Fairbrass.

The company was now very much a B1 printer, which had changed the whole emphasis of its business, he added.

This is where Owers experience will be particularly beneficial, he said.

Owers was sales and marketing director of Leigh-on-Sea based Perivan Group, which traded as Perivan White Dove, prior to its move into administrative receivership last year (PrintWeek, 13 November 2003).

The company was later acquired in an MBO.