Dalton, who joined the group on what was originally envisaged as a temporary basis in 1995, is leaving in order to focus on maximising his investment in the Yorkshire Alphagraphics franchise that he co-owns.

He will not be directly replaced and, as a result, chairman Andrew Pindar, who praised Dalton's "unfailing hard work and deep integrity", will now take on a role more akin to being chairman and chief executive.

Andrew Holmes, who has a background in law, has been appointed as the group's new chief operating officer. He joins from Scarborough Building Society where he was operations director and company secretary prior to its takeover. He takes up the position next week (23 February).

According to Pindar, the changes at the top are a sign that the company is "doing things differently".

"The appointment of Andrew Holmes as our new chief operating officer will balance the roles within the business," he said.

"I've been impressed by a number of things Andrew has done and had tried to get him to join us previously, but there wasn't an obvious role at the time."

He added: "The success of our business over the past 30 or 40 years has been about what we do beyond printing that differentiates us from our peers. I have lots of excellent people in manufacturing and software, so I don't need someone with a printers' mindset. What I need is someone to help me deliver on the ideas and strategies for the business."

In the next few weeks, Pindar will post its results for the year to September 2009, a period that resulted in the group taking a further multi-million pound hit over liabilities associated with its acquisition and subsequent sale of Cooper Clegg.

Pindar quashed speculation that Dalton's departure related to the fall-out from its Tewkesbury foray. "Any decisions we've taken, there is only one place it lands finally and that's at my feet. It wasn't our greatest hour and it's cost us a lot of money, but I blame myself for that."

However, he was upbeat about current trading at the £140m group. "We are ahead of budget for the year to date. In web offset we've been on seven-day working for the past three months with the highest volumes and level of recovery in the company's history."