Former Polestar PowerPrint managing director Stephen Clark is returning to UK printing as managing director of Southernprint.

He replaces Chris Smith, who retires at the end of the year, aged 62, after seven years in charge of the Poole-based web offset printer.

Clark resigned from Polestar in March 2000 (PrintWeek, 24 March). He then worked in the US for Nineveh, a start-up company that produces custom wallpaper, before returning to the UK two months ago.

Smith said he would use his retirement to work on his Gloucestershire home, his garden, see his five grandchildren, and "catch up with all the things I've not been able to do running a busy printing business".

His proudest moment was the introduction of Southernprint's new lean manufacturing strategy, which he said would "ensure this business is capable of competing for the next 10 years". He also praised the "great bunch of people" he has worked with.

Clark said Southernprint was "doing the right things in the right way".

"The way forward is to become more efficient, which is what we are doing here," he said.

The web offset sector had taken "quite a battering" over the past 18 months, he added.

Story by Gordon Carson