BGP has announced that it has appointed Ian Maxted to the role of Sales Director as part of an on-going expansion and development of its business. Ian will take up his new role with bgp with effect from the beginning of December 2011.

Ian has a wealth of industry experience which he will bring to the role having started out in the print industry at the age of 16 when he secured an apprenticeship with a local printing company in Tyneside. He completed a City & Guilds course in machine printing at Leeds Polytechnic, which encompassed all printing processes – Letterpress, Litho, Gravure and Flexo.

After a brief spell working overseas in the holiday industry he came back to the UK and took a job working for Speedprint (Horsforth) Ltd, a B1 business based in Leeds, opening up a new sales area for the company.

Ian then moved onto Hunters of Armley to sell sheetfed and web offset printing – which was then subsequently sold to St Ives. Having laid solid foundations in this role with many blue chip clients, he spent 3 years with St Ives before making the move to Quebecor World to further his career.

Ian spent 8 years at Quebecor World selling web offset and gravure printing to an ever expanding client base gaining export orders for Quebecor Worlds plants throughout Europe.

Following the demise of Quebecor resulting in it’s liquidation he briefly took a role working at Artisan Press. 

Ian was then offered a role with Polestar and joined the group in August 2008, working as Key Account Director with the Retail Sales Team selling, new media (sms/email etc), print management, heat set web offset and gravure. During his time at Polestar Ian worked with some of the largest blue chip companies in the UK market place, encompassing mail order, retail, travel and commercial sectors.

Commenting on his new role Ian said, “I look forward to joining the team at BGP who I believe to be the best invested printing group in the UK, and taking my career on to the next level. “