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Curtis Fine Papers has restructured its top management team after a secondary buy-in management buyout (bimbo) was completed before Christmas.

The deal, which has been led by Robin Paul, will bring new equity to the Scottish fine paper manufacturer and allow existing shareholders to retire from the business.

Paul, who will be the principal shareholder, has been a finance director for electronics, steel and packaging firms and joins as finance director.

Curtis managing director Keith Chapman, sales and marketing director Janey Hunter and operations director Paul Egan complete the management team.

Chapman said: "Curtis has achieved a good turnaround in its trading performance over the past 12 months. Looking ahead we see opportunities to improve our business further.

"We need to have more funds to achieve these objectives and this is what the additional resources will be used for, which have been raised through the refinancing."

Chapman added that the renewal of the management team was "equally important", with the retirement of finance director Bill Whyte. "We now have a young management team who will manage the business moving forwards."

The transaction comes five years after the then managing director, Allan Milne, led the initial MBO at the firm, in a deal which brought it into Scottish ownership for the first time in 20 years.

Curtis made an operating loss in the year ending December 2005 of £1.5 million on an annual turnover of about £30m.

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