Suffolk label printer Denny Brothers has eyes on cross Channel growth, appointing Anne Klermund to lead a sales assault on the French market.
The company hopes to attract a new audience for its Fix-a-form and multipage labels, helped by the weakness of sterling in international markets. “Now is the perfect time to try to strengthen our market position in Europe,” says sales and marketing director Stephen Jarrold. “As we already have a strong customer base in the UK, we hope Anne will help us win more customers in France.”
Klermund was raised in Paris and married a German, as a result has lived in Germany and Austria. She also speaks Mandarin having lived in China, where she worked for L’Oreal and haircut company Wella in Singapore.
In her new role she will work from the company’s head office in Bury St Edmunds, exploiting language skills and Denny’s extensive line up of conventional and Xeikon digital print capacity.
She says: “My new role represents a fantastic opportunity for me as I am not only able to combine my language skills and sales experience, but am also able to live in a familiar and beautiful part of the British countryside.
“I have every confidence that there is a lot of scope for a leading British print company, such as Denny Bros, to gain a significant market share in Europe. My aim is to bring in as many sales leads as possible across France as there are currently not many companies with the capabilities and products to rival Denny Bros’ Fix-a-Form.”
France is understood to be the first step into mainland Europe. There are other opportunities to explore in neighbouring companies, though licensing issues around the Fix-a-Form technology may restrict opportunities.
The company works across healthcare, promotional, agrochemical and informational sectors, building expertise in antimicrobial coatings for medical applications and anti counterfeiting measures for product protection.
At the end of last year it acquired specialist label and nameplate producer Richard Ching & Son, Hadleigh. Chairman Barry Denny says: : “They are a great company with a good workforce and offer an excellent range of specialist signs, labels and nameplates. Their activities dovetail in to those of Denny Bros and Willowbridge Labels, a company we bought a few years ago.”
Denny Bros confirmed its first Xeikon digital label press order at Ipex in London, where: (left to right) Colin Hunt, production director, and commercial director Graham Denny are joined by Duncan Sargeant from Xeikon. Now the Bury St Edmunds label printer is looking to Europe for expansion.
