ROY Houston, the man credited with turning around the fortunes of printer RR Donnelley in York and masterminding its £20 million move in 2000 to a massive new site at Flaxby Moor, has been called to China for his next assignment.

Donnelley's Chicago head office has asked Mr Houston, its vice-president and UK division director, to set up a duplicate operation in Shanghai. A successor at Flaxby Moor has not yet been announced.

Just before flying to the U.S. for a de-briefing today, the puckish 57-year-old Northern Irelander, said: "My responsibility will be to set up a $30 million operation on a similar scale to Flaxby Moor's. It will be Donnelley's second plant in China, the other being in Chenzen, north of Hong Kong. The plan is to be up and running in order to publish our first books in August."

This will not be the globetrotting Mr Houston's first stay in the Far East for RR Donnelley. For two years, until November 1997, the electronic engineer headed up an organisation within its global software services division in charge of two plants offering services to the hardware and software producers of personal computers in Japan. Before that he helped to establish a similar organisation in Brazil.

But his most dynamic management was reserved for York when the telephone directory printer was at the Boroughbridge Road plant. He arrived in 1998 amidst big problems of productivity, performance and profitability and an ultimatum by a major customer to improve or lose the next seven-year contract.

Mr Houston had two years to prevent what would have meant certain closure. He took charge of all operational functions as well as information technology, human resources, customer service and finance. Now, with not one delivery date missed in two years, the organisation has signed a new contract and has become so profitable that it has been able to invest in the Flaxby Moor venture.

Updated: 09:09 Tuesday, March 19, 2002