GEA DENCO's managing director Mark Shutler and operations director Derek Ling are leaving the firm at the end of February.
Frank Albrecht is the new managing director who will take up his post in March. He will report directly to Frank Voßloh, a board director of the GEA Air Treatment division in Germany.

Denco's parent company GEA Air Treatment announced that the two men were leaving the firm to 'address themselves to new tasks'.

Shutler, who joined Denco as a teenage engineering apprentice working on the factory floor, has spent 30 years with the company and the last 10 years as its director.

'After literally spending my entire working life with this company, it will be a major wrench to leave,' said Mr Shutler. 'It will be a very emotional time as we have many close personal friends here. However, GEA have been a good parent so we know Denco is in safe hands and will continue to move confidently into the future. 'My father always told me that 'nothing is forever', but I suppose I didn't accept this as Denco was so much a part of my life. However, he has been proved right and it is time for us to seek new challenges.'

Ling joined Denco when he was 20. He has been with the company for 34 years including 10 years as operations director.

Ling said: 'We will be extremely sad to leave, but it is with a feeling of immense satisfaction that the company is in excellent shape,' he said. 'We have made a lot of changes in recent years, but always with an eye on the future. Denco is now well placed to come through the current economic downturn unscathed and to take advantage of the many growth opportunities - particularly in low energy systems.'

Fellow Denco directors John Tandy and Alex Ritchie are remaining with the company and have been given 'enhanced responsibilities', according to a GEA statement.

Shutler and a group of directors led a management buy-out from former owners AMEC in 2000.

The Hereford-based business was sold to the GEA Air Treatment division in 2006. Denco, which had a turnover of £47 million in 2008 and employs more than 400 people, operates production facilities in Hereford and Turkey alongside seven operated by the GEA division.