Freier will replace joint-managing director Michael Neugart, who is leaving the German post-press firm after 12 years, on 1 January.

A statement from Polar-Mohr said that Neugart is leaving to "explore a new professional path".

Freier, formerly managing director of sales and marketing at Prinovis, has been working alongside Neugart for the past three months. His past roles include working in sales and marketing at Heidelberg and managing its sales team in France from 2000 to 2003.  

He said: "I spent many years working at Heidelberg, Polar’s primary sales partner, so in many ways it is like coming back to the family."

Freier added that he was looking forward to tackling the challenges facing the company next year.

"There are some growing markets that we have to address, especially in the digital area," he said. "We are a big supplier of digital equipment and we have to think of how we can participate in the growth of this market.

"Web-to-print is another big area for us – I have visited web-to-print businesses all over Europe and the US and it is a very interesting market; however, web-to-print is a big threat for smaller commercial printers who are also a significant part of our customer base," he added.