Tony Langley, the British investor behind the acquisition of the manroland sheetfed business, has appointed German Alfred Rothlaender as head of manroland sheetfed systems GmbH.

Mr Rothlaender (66) was formerly head of machinery builder Claudius Peters near Hamburg when Langley acquired the business in 2001. Mr Rothlaender then went on to head the Piller Group, a producer of heavy electrical systems for data centres near Hanover, between 2005 and 2008, following Langley’s acquisition of that business, before retiring mid 2010.

But it was to be a short retirement, the industry veteran kept in touch with his former boss and said that he was ready to come back should Langley make a further acquisition in Germany.

“Alfred knows exactly how we work when taking on a new business” said Langley. “…he is a vastly experienced MD who I know can be relied on during the transition between the former institutional management style of manroland AG and the leaner more flexible way that our companies do things”