Mike Young (pictured) will be named the new managing director of Polestar Sheffield, while group sales and marketing director John Ashfield is to become a non-executive director at the group.

A spokeswoman wouldn't confirm the moves, but said: "There will be announcements in due course."

Young is currently group operations director. He joined the group in May 2003, having spent 13 years with Quebecor World. He is regarded by many as the group's "rising star" and was responsible for Sheffield during its investment cycle. He will become the third managing director of the plant in just over a year, following the resignations of Andrew Jones and Stephen Clark.

Ashfield joined BPC as director of sales and marketing in 1982, and was part of the management buy out team in 1989. He helped oversee the merger of the British Printing Company and Watmoughs Holdings, which become the Polestar Group.

Meanwhile, staff affected by the proposed 70 redundancies announced last week across the group's head office and sales operations have hit out at the salaries of the board members.

Staff presented a "counter proposal" at the start of the 30-day consultation period, which began on Monday.

The employee representatives proposed around 1.6m worth of cost savings, including boardroom savings of 1.3m. The proposal claimed that this would save more than 20 jobs.

The savings centred on implementing a 250,000 salary and 250,000 bonus cap for board members. According to the group's 2004 accounts, the highest paid director at the firm earned 784,000.

A like-for-like comparison with the salaries of board members of rival print firms, including St Ives is believed to have been part of the presentation.

Other proposed savings included bringing various functions back in-house and tighter cost controls on corporate entertainment, first class travel, and the scrapping of the group's "Star Awards".
The group's spokeswoman said: "We can't comment during the consultation period."

Print board costs 2004
- Polestar 2.6m

- Williams Lea 1.83m

- St Ives 1.38m

- Wyndeham Press Group 1.05m

- Communisis 774,000