Peter Andreou, who was chief operating officer at Polestar until his departure in October 2015, is now chairman of Amsterdam-headquartered CirclePrinters as a result of what is understood to be a change in ownership at the business.
CirclePrinters said that an unnamed Amsterdam-based investment group headed by Andreou was now a new investor in the company.
Andreou becomes chairman of CirclePrinters as a result, while current chief executive José Maria Camacho steps back into the role of non-executive director and advisor to the business.
London-based Clearwater International has also taken a stake, and will “help CirclePrinters implement its growth and consolidation strategy in the next few years”, the print group said in a statement.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
PrintWeek could not reach Andreou, Camacho, or Clearwater International for comment at the time of writing.
In a statement, Andreou (pictured below) said: “It is an honour to have the opportunity to continue the evolution of CirclePrinters which has, with the strong leadership and professionalism of José Maria Camacho and his team, created an efficient, cost effective and customer focused culture. The new investors look forward to continuing to work with Jose Maria and the management teams to implement a growth strategy within the group.”
One print boss commented: “This raises more questions than it answers. Who’s running it if the CEO has stepped down and become a non-exec? Is Barry [Hibbert, former Polestar chief executive] going to be involved as well?”
PrintWeek was unable to reach Hibbert for comment. He has recently taken up a new role outside the industry as executive chairman of property search business PSG Reading.
CirclePrinters is headquartered in Amsterdam and the €320m (£268m) turnover group has gravure and web offset printing facilities across the continent, with plants in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany and Spain.
Earlier this year it reorganised its operations after selling its Swedish business to Stibo Graphic. Chief executive Camacho took over the running of its Ibérica operations, incorporating the Impresia web and sheetfed printing plants, and its pre-media operations.
Panu Tornianen was appointed as managing director of its rotogravure division incorporating Helio Charleroi in Belgium and Helprint Oy in Finland, and the associated sales organisation.
Joachim Kühn became managing director of its web offset facilities in Central Europe: Oberndorfer Druckerei in Austria and J Fink Druck in Germany.
In May Polestar’s former group sales director David Gray joined CirclePrinters as its UK sales director.
