A management shake up at Denmaur Independent Papers will prepare the way for the retirement of Nick Gee over the next six months. Gee will step up from managing director to chief executive for the period, leaving Andy Buxton to step in as group managing director with Doug Jessop becoming managing director of Denmaur’s Media division.
Mike Gee, who founded the business 40 years ago with the assistance of his younger brother, becomes deputy chairman with Harry Gould as chairman and Robert Gould as board director. The Goulds bought into the business in 2019.
When he started in the business Nick Gee says he was employed to answer the phone “because I was cheaper than an answering machine”. He had intended to continue to train as a dentist. Instead the pair along with Denise Gee, have grown the business from an agency business targeting publishers to a major stockholding merchant and now a converting business with a bespoke sheeting offer as Reel Fast introduced this year.
The company has also led with its environmental stance, supporting the World Land Trust to offset the carbon embedded in paper production, supporting recycled papers and most recently becoming the first merchant to sign up to the Science Based Targets initiative.
Gee says that the business will be in good hands when he steps aside. “We have a tremendous team of professionals within Denmaur who possess both the drive and desire to take the company into the next phase of its evolution.
“For me, retirement is an opportunity to realise some lifelong ambitions, many of which revolve around travelling, enjoying even longer skiing holidays and relearning how to sail.
“I would like to thank my fellow board members, alongside all of our valued customers and suppliers and, of course, our great team of employees (past and present) who have helped to make the last 40 years an absolute pleasure.”
In recent years with the decline in commercial and publishing volumes, Denmaur has expanded into packaging grades, helping to offset the decline in printing papers. In an interview with Print Business earlier this year, Gee was looking forward for the business. “We are optimistic for paper and fibre based packaging in the long term,” Gee said. “Online retailers will need to use print, either through flyers or direct mail, to remind customers to return to their websites. The move away from plastics to cartons will continue.
“We are seeing the good companies come to the top, the companies that have had the courage to look forwards and not to repeat the same old, same old.”
