Nick Lee, who was most recently managing director of ESP Colour for four years, started at the Leicester-based company as director of strategic growth on Monday (22 March).

Lee followed in Austin Coyne, who started as head of print services in January, having previously worked as print operations manager at Irongate Group until 2018, where he was heavily involved in the procurement of print. He subsequently left the business to set up his own print consultancy service.

Both roles are newly created and will support Haybrooke’s new trade-only outsourcing service that connects print buyers with printers.

John Roche, chief executive of Haybrooke, told Printweek: “Austin Coyne kept in touch with Haybrooke because he had used PDQ [Haybrooke’s system] as a buyer at Irongate for a number of years and he really liked the system.”

Coyne had continued to use the PDQ system while working as a print consultant but subsequently came to an agreement with Roche to join Haybrooke full-time.

“We thought it was important that we had someone that could see the model from the buying perspective, because Austin having bought print for many years could evaluate and show the system where required from a buyer’s and a customer’s perspective,” said Roche.

“Nick Lee on the other hand is from a very strong manufacturing background so he can see it from the supply chain perspective. In essence, ‘printing as a service’ connects the customers with the supply chain, therefore, to have two guys that have been active in those job functions in their career was incredibly important.”

Lee, who had been managing director of LPC Group for 22 years prior to joining ESP Colour, added: “I am over the moon to have joined Haybrooke and am looking forward to getting stuck into my new role. I have been a big advocate of PDQ for more than a decade from a customer perspective, so it is exciting to find myself on the other side of the fence.

“For me, moving to Haybrooke was an easy decision. There is nothing else like PDQ on the market and what I really like is that it is genuinely good for buyers and suppliers alike.”

He added: “PDQ allows suppliers to compete for the work that suits them best and in turn gives buyers competitive market pricing, as you would expect.

“Once buyers use the system and get accustomed to immediate live pricing and the wide choice of suppliers, it is amazing how quickly it transforms their own operations, taking out admin overhead and saving huge amounts of time and effort. Getting pricing back to customers swiftly is paramount in today’s marketplace and PDQ ticks this box comprehensively.”

The two new hires have boosted Haybrooke’s headcount to 11.