Managing Director role for a privately-owned, international group supplying highly-engineered components into a variety of sectors.

Client Details

A North West-based business providing highly-engineered, bespoke components into a range of sectors. They have grown from humble beginnings into a truly international manufacturing group, with revenues fast approaching £100m, nearly 300 employees and customers in over 80 countries. With new product innovations serving emerging sectors, there is no sign of this growth slowing down - quite the reverse.

Still owned by the founder, this company prides itself on quality and reputation. The products are engineered to their customers' needs, have to meet stringent specifications & standards, and are designed to operate within demanding environments. Gross margins are high, and this is the core of their commercial philosophy: they let their competitors chase the higher volume, low margin work.

The founder is looking to take a step back, and needs a Managing Director to run the business for him. The company have a fantastic reputation, great products and a very strong leadership team. Growth is already good. But this is not a business that rests: there is plenty of core market still to play for, and they are expanding into new markets as well. Accelerating the current path and finding new, lucrative opportunities is what this is all about.

Description

The Managing Director will run the business, reporting into the founder. The remit includes:

• Leading the senior team, comprising of Directors & Department Heads across Sales, Finance, Engineering, Technical, Supply Chain, Projects, Quality, HR, IT and HSE
• Responsible for an international office network, with total headcount of approximately 300 across several countries
• Developing the vision and commercial strategy to allow the company to continue the current growth trajectory, as well as exploiting opportunities in new sectors
• Harnessing the experience, loyalty and entrepreneurial spirit of the current team to build on successes, identify areas for evolution, and ultimately deliver above-average results

Profile

The right person for this role will be a Managing Director (or equivilant) with a background in companies supplying highly-engineered, bespoke industrial products. A mechanical engineer by trade, the MD will be comfortable talking to engineers internally and within their customers: completely at ease in a technical sales environment. Previous career path will have included significant commercial responsibility, culminating in a position with end-to-end P&L responsibility.

Commercial acumen is key - this business is seeking someone with a track record of identifying and exploiting new, high margin opportunities, with the skills to guide the commercial team to achieve this. Leadership style will be engaging, collaborative, able to nurture the loyalty and pride of the existing team while still finding new and innovative ways to do things.

Exposure to (or an interest in) working directly for a founder would be ideal.

Job Offer

This is a critical role: the package will therefore be very attractive for the right person.