Anderson, who was in the British Army for 11 years after graduating from university, arrived at Sun from DS Smith, where for the past four years he has headed up a collection of five of its businesses in the UK under the banner of its Heavy Duty Packaging Division.
Anderson has been in the role since mid-September and is based at its regional European headquarters in Slough.
“I think I bring a lot of customer sympathy and focus to the job, which is really important going forward," he said. "We’re basically here to solve our customers' problems and help them grow and be successful. I’ve been going around and seeing a lot of our customers, understanding how to help them."
“The challenge is to try and get the resources of Sun aligned so we can continually be the best out there. It’s about making people aware of what we have got that’s good because I don’t think we’re particularly good at doing that. Some of our competitors punch above their weight but we sort of punch below our weight.”
Anderson will be reporting to Greg Hayes, Sun’s group managing director for the northern Europe region.
Hayes said: “With more than nine years’ experience in the packaging industry, Adam has a great understanding of this market segment and therefore our customers’ requirements.”
Anderson said it is a challenge looking after his three regions as they are relatively disassociated but he is making progress in running the UK and Nordics as one team. He said South Africa shares a surprising amount of customers with the UK.
However, he said that 2017 would be a challenging year for the industry with fluctuating exchange rates meaning a rise in the cost of raw materials.
It’s been a busy year for the global printing ink manufacturer and its parent company DIC Corporation: It completed on the acquisition of Flint Group's European publication gravure ink business in early October and followed this up a few weeks later with the acquisition of South Wales-based Gwent Electronic Materials (GEM), its first move into the printed electronics ink sector.
Between them, Sun and DIC employ more than 20,000 staff and have annual sales of around $7.5bn (£6bn).
