Great-grandson of company founder Arthur Holdsworth Leach, Richard Leach and his co-director Jim Parkin will move into advisory positions from now until May next year in order to ease the transition for the new team before becoming head of the graphic design-focused Leach Studio side of the business.
Leach’s finance director James Lavin will take up the top job as managing director, while head of sales Adrian Wray, who joined the Huddersfield firm in January as head of sales, will take on the newly created position as sales and marketing director.
Filling out the rest of the team are operations manager Russell Wilson, who has stepped up to head of operations; company secretary Paul Wadsworth becomes head of finance; and senior project manager Tom Foster has become head of Leach Inspire, the company’s graphic display wing for the heritage sector.
“The departing shareholders have created a legacy that they can rightly be proud of,” Lavin said. “We have a range of high-quality products and services that we sell into some fantastic markets.
“However, the next logical step was to internationalise, and the chances of success are far greater being part of a global organisation rather than local family ownership. The business case is compelling – there will be exciting times ahead.
“The company has a strong pipeline of innovative products which we will use to spearhead growth in our existing markets. In addition, being part of a group with the global reach of Chargeurs we are aiming to accelerate our internationalisation. This growth plan will absolutely involve investment in our people and tech infrastructure.”
With a turnover of £11m, Lavin is set to guide Leach through a five-year plan to reach £25m by taking advantage of the “investment, ideas and contacts at senior levels in a number of international businesses” provided by being part of the Chargeurs group, which has a customer base spanning 80 countries and is aiming for €1bn (£891m) in revenue by 2022.
As part of its continued investment, Leach is set to take on a Durst Rhotex and a Monti Antonio calender to enhance its dye-sublimation offering.
Lavin said there would be minimal changes to the structure of the wider Leach team, bar minor adjustments in the reporting structure. The firm employs 100 members of staff on 2,787sqm premises running three Durst UV printers, including 5m capability, a SwissQprint Nyala wide-format printer and screen printing.
