Proventus team join Polestar board

Proventus Capital Partners has appointed four directors to Polestar Print Holdings, including a former Quebecor executive.

The Swedish investment group took over the ownership of Polestar from Sun Capital Partners just over a month ago.

The swathe of Proventus appointments includes its chief executive Daniel Sachs, alongside investment directors Henrik Bjerklin and Anders Thelin.

Significantly, Proventus has also brought on board printing industry veteran Hans Carlsson, a highly-experienced executive with a print career that dates back to the 1970s.

Carlsson is a former managing director of Nordic web offset and gravure print group Tryckinvest, which was jointly owned by Proventus and publisher Bonnier before being acquired by Quebecor in 1998.

He was subsequently group managing director of Quebecor Nordics until 2001, and has acted as an industrial advisor to Proventus since 2003.

“We have started working closely with the management team at Polestar,” Carlsson told PrintWeek. “With my long experience of the gravure side I can give them some new ideas about what they can do better. We are all working hard and have a programme in place.”

He added: “Together with Proventus, we also know a lot about the European market, and pricing. We will take a look at that too.”

Polestar’s sales fell by 9% to £216.4m in the year to 30 September 2014, and it made an operating loss of £5.4m. Its 2015 accounts are not yet available.

The group’s other current directors are chief executive Barry Hibbert and company secretary Alan Goodwin.

Newly appointed chief financial officer Swagatam Mukerji is not yet listed as a director of the business, although his appointment is likely to be reflected in official filings soon.