The job came first. Duplo International needed a chief innovations officer to match its ambitions in terms of technology development. It needed someone with the status to be able to talk to dealers and to OEMs at a strategic level and so help take Duplo into the next bracket of finishing solution providers.
Last week Duplo announced that in Peter Jolly, country manager for UK & Ireland for HP industrial printing, it had found the right person.
It is a return to Duplo for Jolly who left in August 2017 having risen to be UK managing director. Then the opportunity at HP appealed and he left, only to return in the new role.
“Duplo is where it all began for me twenty years ago and a company that gave me the start for the career that I have today. It feels fantastic to return,” he says.
“As CIO, my focus is to work alongside my colleagues on the board to help the company grow incremental revenues across EMEA, over and above the current business growth, through new and innovative strategic projects.”
Duplo International handles sales and distribution across Europe and the Middle East working through distributors and dealers, some little more than box shifters. However, as Duplo is expanding its product range into a larger B2 formats and pushing towards high value packaging with digital embellishment and at flatbed die cutter to be launched at Drupa, along with other prototypes to be shown there, a different approach is required.
This will be project based working with press suppliers and the end customer, via the distributor, to achieve the level of automation that that customer is seeking. This means too that Duplo’s own software integration will play an increasing role beyond the connectivity offered through Fiery. The role requires someone trusted to be able to discuss such integrations at the highest level, hence the appointment of Jolly. He takes up the new job on Monday next week, in time for Drupa.
Jolly will work alongside Bruno Picquet as CEO of Duplo International and Marine Kerivel-Brown who is leading the company’s sustainability strategy.
“He will also be looking at new ways to move Duplo International forward in areas like digital coating and embellishment and growing the business beyond the traditional small printers space,” says a Duplo spokesman.
Picquet adds: “Peter’s visionary leadership and passion for groundbreaking ideas will play a crucial role in shaping our organisation’s trajectory. We are excited to welcome Peter back in our Duplo family.”
The appointment will mean a step away from front line sales and away from a pure focus on managing a business in the UK only into a more strategic, international role.
