Leet, who was previously chief executive, replaces non-executive chairman David Burall who stepped down at the end of October.

"In my new role I look forward to getting to work with the Burall teams to further improve competitiveness and to develop more innovative services and products," said Leet.

The 27m turnover group is made up of three divisions: Burall, the core business, which offers plastic packaging services and labelling products for retail sectors; packaging procurement and artwork firm Burall Imagenet and smart card and data capture operation Burall Infosmart.

"We have also recently opened a Burall Imagenet office in Hong Kong and are close to signing an important deal for Burall Infosmart," added Leet.

Leet joined the firm over 35 years ago as an apprentice. The business, which was founded in 1892, was family run until 1998 when the family created a Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) so that a large proportion of the firm's shares are held by, or in trust for, the staff.

Story by Darryl Danielli