Tate, who became European print management services director at Communisis following its £42m acquisition of Centurion in 2002, left the industry in 2006 to pursue other interests.

He said: "I was approached by Communisis a couple of months ago to do some consulting on new business development. I listened to some of the changes that have been made and thought it sounded quite exciting.

"Communisis still has the print management discipline, which is my area of expertise, but they've complemented it by growing the logistics side of the business.

"But the big changes have come in the front end with things like the acquisition of AI, which has given them this great service offering comprising data management, print management and logistics."

In addition to Tate's return, Communisis has further strengthened its print management division with the expansion of group business development director Paul Bennett's role.

Bennett will take full responsibility for print management services including sales, with the aim of further improving the effectiveness of this important component of Communisis' offering. He will now be responsible for sales from the Newcastle and Rickmansworth offices.

Group sales director and incoming chief executive Andy Blundell said: "I am pleased to see Paul taking on some of my former responsibilities and that we have attracted Simon back to the company - they are important players in the winning team we are building at Communisis."

Communisis said that the two appointments were "the first stage of a wider process of organisational enhancement".