The new marketing director of the Anton Group has revealed plans for the firm to become one of the top 50 printing companies in the UK within three years.


Gary Best, who joined in the newly created role at the start of June after three years as production director of Addison Design, part of advertising group WPP, said the group was "very innovative" and was looking to expand its blue-chip client base, which includes Barclays and HSBC.


Last summer the group spent 6m relocating to a single site near Brentwood in Essex, which was previously occupied by Clifford Thames (PrintWeek, 16 June 2000).


It now houses Bantam Prospect, Colortec, Hockley
Printing Company and Print & Mailing Solutions, but these will come under the Anton Group brand from 1 July, and will be rebranded to include the Anton name.


The firm is installing a 1.9m 10-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster 102 in July.


It aims to buy 300,000 of ink-jet and lasering facilities shortly.
Anton already runs seven B1 Heidelberg presses ranging from two- to 10-colour perfecting, which are supplied with 500 plates a day by three Agfa Galileo CTP systems.


Print & Mailing Solutions won the Direct Mail Printer of the Year trophy at last years PrintWeek Awards.


The group employs around 230 staff at Brentwood and reached number 103 in last years PrintWeek Top 500 with sales of 19.6m and pre-tax profits of 923,000.


Best started his print career with a five-year compositor apprenticeship and before joining Addison he spent 10 years at Atelier Dataset.


Story by Gordon Carson