The Paperlinx-owned company has appointed Ken Booth to the new role of general manager, Australia. Booth has been with the business more than 15 years, in senior roles in Australia and North America.

Andy Preece, executive general manager of Australia, New Zealand & Asia, told ProPrint: "I have always believed in local autonomous businesses. I have spent the past 18 months getting the business to a position to justify and benefit from a local head.

"Ken has been my number two for a year now and this was the appropriate time for him to step up."

Preece added that along with Booth and John Greenacre, general manager of Paperlinx New Zealand, the global merchant was in the process of moving Genevieve Chua into the top Asian role as long-time boss Lawrence Kwok approached retirement.

[Related: Ups and downs of Paperlinx]

Meanwhile, Spicers has made three people redundant in its Western Australian business, including Graham Cole, who had been regional general manager since 2008.

Preece stressed that the redundancies were not performance-related and that the merchant had to make tough decisions to right-size the company in the difficult trading conditions.

Paperlinx has made significant redundancies worldwide over the past 18 months.

The three WA roles are being replaced with one, as Roger Rankine, formerly national sales manager, Digital Media, moves to the Perth business.

Spicers is also relocating its Perth site, as long-term leases expired on its two legacy facilities.

Preece said the relocation would help right-size its WA operation, which was "going well".

"Like all our businesses, it has had its challenges and it is reacting to a shrinking demand from core commercial print, but we are pleased with the business and with the opportunity that moving to a more realistically sized warehouse brings us."

[Related: More job news]

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