A spokeswoman for Premier Paper declined to comment on the reasons behind Rogans exit.

Karl-Johan Lindborg, president and chief executive of Map Merchant Group, Premiers parent, said Griffiths was "the best person to steer Premier Paper through a challenging period for paper merchanting and help it to realise its potential".

Griffiths steps back into the merchanting business from his role as managing director of a division of Unipart, the automotive parts group.

He was chief executive of Arjo Wiggins from 1998 to April 2000, during which time he bought together Arjo UK Merchants and Wiggins Teape to create Antalis.

One industry source said it would be interesting to see if Griffiths had been brought in to do a similar task at Map and unite its merchant companies.

Rogan was managing director of Alliance Paper prior to its merger with Guppy Paper and incorporation of Classic Papers, Asset Paper and Hedsorboard under the Premier Paper name in April 2000.

Map Merchant Group was the new name given to the paper merchanting operations formerly known as New Merchanting Force (NMF), the merchanting arms of Mets-Serla and MoDo (now M-real) (PrintWeek, 15 June 2001).

The UK merchanting operation of Map comprises Premier Paper, Classic Papers, Hedsorboard, James McNaughton Paper and MoDo Merchants.

PrintWeek has also learned that Premier Paper financial director Chris Davy has been suspended, and the company is believed to be investigating its accounting procedures.

Story by Andy Scott