中文The anilox roll might be the most underrated hero of the printing world — and the company behind a lot of them just made a quiet leadership move worth noting. Apex International has promoted Martin Euwe to chief financial officer, based at its global headquarters in Hapert, in the Netherlands. On the surface it is a routine internal promotion. Underneath, it tells you where a serious supplier thinks its future is heading.
Euwe joined Apex in August 2023 as manager of financial planning and analysis. Barely three years later, he is running the global finance function. The promotion recognises his financial expertise, his commercial instincts, and his work improving the company’s systems, processes, and business insight. Those last words are the clue: this is not just a bean-counter appointment. It is a build-the-backbone appointment.
As CFO, Euwe will oversee financial management across Apex’s international operations — financial controls, cash-flow management, capital allocation, and performance transparency. The less boring part is his mandate to push technology and business intelligence deeper into reporting, support disciplined investment decisions, and surface operational insights faster. Ruud van Cuijk, Apex’s CEO, credited Euwe with “sound judgment, ownership and the ability to translate complex financial information into clear business direction.”
Here is what makes the story interesting for the rest of the industry. Euwe is explicit that finance, IT, and data should grow at the same pace as the business. His words: build “a scalable financial and digital backbone, making better use of data and AI, and enabling faster, better-informed decisions.” A CFO talking about AI is not novel in 2026. A CFO of a manufacturing supplier talking about using AI to make the whole organisation decide faster is a signal that the technology conversation has moved from the marketing department to the engine room.
Euwe’s background fits the brief. He has worked across financial planning, business control, and revenue management, holds a Master’s in Finance completed cum laude, and is finishing an Executive Master of Finance and Control, expected June 2027. That combination — academic rigour plus hands-on commercial experience — is exactly what a globally expanding manufacturer needs when the finance function has to double as a data and strategy hub.
Why should a label converter or print shop care who the CFO of an anilox supplier is? Because your suppliers’ stability and smarts flow downhill to you. Apex makes the precision rollers that put ink on substrate at microscopic consistency. When that company invests in better financial systems, better data, and AI-assisted decision-making, it is positioning itself to scale internationally without losing its grip on quality or service. A supplier that runs itself well is a supplier you can build a production plan around.
There is also a softer signal. Apex’s leadership structure — chairman setting strategic direction, CEO executing, and now a strengthened CFO on the executive team — shows a company deliberately building governance muscle as it grows. For customers choosing long-term partners, that kind of organisational maturity is a quiet reassurance. Anyone can sell you a roller. Few can promise the operational backbone behind it will still be world-class in five years.
The print industry loves to talk transformation in the pressroom. Euwe’s promotion is a reminder that transformation also happens in the finance office — and that the companies pairing financial discipline with data and AI are the ones likely to fund the next decade of innovation.
Information source: Labels & Labeling (labelsandlabeling.com)
