"We haven't ever had a customer services director at Heron and it has become a very big plant," said Wyndeham Group managing director Paul Utting. "It produces lots of high profile, high quality and time sensitive titles so we needed to have someone there."

Outlaw, who starts on Monday (12 July), was appointed as part of the firm's commitment to enhance customer service and will help to integrate sales, account management and production.

"I am absolutely delighted, both for Alan and for Wyndeham," said NatMags group manufacturing director Alice Beattie. "He is a class act and I am sure he will be a real asset to the Wyndeham Group.

Outlaw's move to Heron has heightened speculation that Wyndeham is in the frame to pick up NatMag's proposed celebrity weekly, being developed under the codename Project Reveal.

Outlaw (pictured) left Polestar earlier this year as a result of ongoing consolidation at the group having created a blueprint for group-wide customer service. He had been with Polestar and Watmoughs for 30 years.