Newsquest took him on as an adviser and has massive paper demands from its 10 newspaper printing sites, niche magazine production and door-to-door distribution services.
The firm belongs to Gannett and is the UK’s second biggest regional publisher with more than 300 titles and 10.6m copies a week.
The 59-year-old was marketing director of Caledonian Paper in 1987 before becoming a managing director of Kymmene in 1989, and deputy managing director when it merged with UPM.
Davenport started out as a trainee at Associated Paper Mills in 1960, then spent 21 years at Lamco Printings (Finnpap).
He is the latest high-level appointment at Newsquest. Four months ago David Coates was appointed managing director at Newsquest Bradford.
Story by Jez Abbott
