UK-based printing equipment manufacturer Edale has rehired Darren Pickford as its sales director.

Edale is a British engineering firm renowned for its design and building of flexographic printing technologies. It also has extensive heritage and expertise in the development of digital printing systems, such as the Canon LabelStream 4000 Series, amongst others.

Mr Pickford has rejoined Edale and resumed his role as sales director after a short break from the business last year. He had previously been with Edale since 2016. His prior professional experience includes working at Bobst and Nordmeccanica. 

Edale noted that Mr Pickford is well regarded in the industry. He is an apprentice-trained engineer who studied electrical and electronic engineering. His background spans over 30 years, where he has been involved in packaging machinery and has a broad knowledge of different applications, both end-user and material manufacture.

On his return to Edale, Mr Pickford commented, ‘After leaving Edale for a non-sales role, I didn’t realise that I would miss the day-to-day customer interaction so much. Developing long-term relationships has been fundamental to how I have done business during my career, and this is an ethos shared throughout the Edale team. Once an opportunity came available for a return, then it was an easy decision to make. I am excited to reconnect with the Edale customer base and continuing to help the agent network in achieving long term success within the packaging market.’

This appointment comes at a pivotal time for Edale as it continues to grow its business globally and is currently in the midst of a recruitment drive for a number of vacancies in the UK.

Edale managing director James Boughton said, ‘The team and I are delighted to see the return of Darren to Edale. His knowledge of the industry and understanding of our customers’ needs will give a real boost to our sales effort this year, and we are looking forward to Darren picking up on all the good work that he had already started.

‘Darren has a strong relationship with our worldwide agents and distributors and will support our global plans. We have ambitious plans and exciting times ahead of us, and to have a trusted expert back in the fold of Edale will help us forge ahead.’