From next month he will become sales development manager distributor, territories, which are all countries outside Europe and North America.

Donegal's initial focus will be on Asia Pacific. "I've spent the past nine years developing sales and revenues in the UK, now I'll be using my experience to develop the sales territories outside Europe and North America," said Donegal. "This is a worldwide opportunity that is going to take me on my travels."

HP Indigo does not plan to replace Donegal's UK general manager role. UK regional sales managers Ian Kimber (central), Adrian Stark (south) and Bill Holmes (north) will report to northern European sales manager Wolfgang Kochan. This new structure matches the way HP organises its other divisions.

"Removing the branch manager removes a bottleneck," said Donegal.

HP Indigo UK shipped more presses in the fourth quarter than it had in any quarter for the past couple of years. HP's Imaging and Printing division, of which HP Indigo is part, had a record quarter with profits up 89% to 593m ($928m) on sales up 12% to 3.6bn. HP's total revenue for the quarter remained flat at 11.6bn, while earnings before tax were 292m, compared to a loss of 466m last year.

Story by Barney Cox