Carl Garnett, who was appointed to the role nine months ago, left the company last week.

He said the parting of ways was "by mutual agreement" and he was now looking at fresh opportunities in the industry.

"I am pursuing a couple of options that could be exciting," he said.

In a separate move Ian Maxted, who joined Garnett Dickinson Print as a sales executive at the same time as Garnett, has left to join Quad/Graphics as UK sales representative.

Maxted said: "I'm delighted to be joining Quad/Graphics it's a brilliant opportunity for me, and I'm looking forward to working with everyone there."

Garnett Dickinson chief executive Joel Dickinson could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.

The £44m-turnover family-owned publishing and printing group sold its Acorn Web Offset subsidiary to its then chief executive Nick Alexander earlier this year.