Leah Asher-Gent started in the newly created role at the Little Eaton, Derby-based commercial printer on 28 June. She has spent the last five years in the print industry following a career in recruitment, most recently as sales manager at Matlock-based Image Printing.

Asher-Gent’s appointment follows Mercia’s merger via acquisition by The Print Design Factory (Sheffield) in October 2020. The company has also recently launched a new bespoke packaging service, which it said is “growing rapidly”.

“I am quite creative and artistic, so my involvement in clients’ projects proves I have a passion for print which matches with Mercia’s passion ethos,” said Asher-Gent.

“I love to watch a client’s business develop and suggest new and innovative ways to help market their business through print. I am reliable, very dedicated and like to build strong relationships with my clients so that they can lean on me and trust that I will do a great job for them.”

Mercia company ambassador Amanda Strong said Asher-Gent would be “a great asset”, helping the business to get out and meet potential new customers, especially on the packaging side.

Strong told Printweek: “The companies that Leah has come from are in lots of ways very similar to Mercia. She’s very motivated and, importantly, she’s got that likeable factor – people want to stay with her.

“We want to continue with the local market, because Derby is doing very well as a city, so we want to develop all our clients more.

“We also want to diversify into the packaging side a bit more and to really tell people what products we’ve got to offer. We’re trying to hit marketing to people in lots of different ways.”

Between them, Mercia and The Print Design Factory (Sheffield) run Xerox digital printers, a Mitsubishi B2 press, a Ryobi (RMGT) SRA1 press, and a Heidelberg B3 machine, as well as a raft of finishing kit, specialist mailing equipment, and XMPie personalisation software on the Xerox machines.