Bryan Godwyn, previously joint managing director with Hards, has become sole managing director and 100% shareholder of the Hemel Hempstead-based firm, which has 35 staff.
Hards will continue to sit in on board meetings for a further year and will oversee the welcoming of technical sales director Jason Seaber and technical services director Alan Harrison as board members.
“I am looking forward to fully taking over the reins of the business but appreciate what a great ambassador Tony has been for print, how much he has given the company and how well-respected he is by everyone in the industry,” said Godwyn.
“It’s a perfect situation where we can use all of Tony’s years of experience as well as the young blood with the two guys that have been with us for a long time stepping up to the board.”
He added: “This is a natural progression for IFS and we are delighted that Tony will continue to work with us in a mentoring role. His knowledge, insight and sage advice will be invaluable to our continued growth and success.”
Hards has worked in the printing industry for more than 60 years. He joined Krisson Printing as an apprentice at the age of 15 then worked for companies including Waterlow and Sons and Hawthorn Baker before joining GAE (Graphic Arts Equipment). He worked his way up to sales manager at GAE in 1981.
In 1992 he led a management buyout (MBO) of the firm’s equipment division with Godwyn and he was also responsible for brokering the Horizon and Perfecta agencies - a key part of IFS’ equipment portfolio.
Since 2006 IFS has focused on finishing equipment and is the exclusive distributor in the UK and Ireland for Horizon and Perfecta as well as Foliant, Petratto, SCS, Italdibipack and, as of last year, Tecnau.
Godwyn said the firm’s future strategy will be a “huge focus” on customer support and backup.
“What customers need now is very good response, spare parts, logistics and service engineers being on site. We’ve got a training academy in Germany with the Horizon parent company, available for customers to use as a training site.
“We’re also recruiting more engineers and more staff internally. We’ve spent a lot of time and effort on internal training and our technical services department will expand.”
He added: “We think 2016 will be an amazing year. 2015 has been fantastic; we’ve been full on and the last six months have been incredible in terms of installations.
“Printers have really turned a corner from three or four years ago and know they’ve got to upgrade with new technology and make themselves more efficient and more automated. I see that continuing for sure with printers looking at their finishing bottleneck and trying to do something about it.”
