Business Centre Manager

Job Description

Collingwood is proud to continue our retained partnership with this Specialist B2B Distributor .Company Summary For more than 40 years, Collingwoods client has operated a decentralised, flat structure. A tried and tested formula of employing entrepreneurially spirited individuals to run Business Centres as, essentially, their own businesses has proven highly successful.Employees have enjoyed the rewards associated with this autonomous structure and the associated profit share scheme. Aside from audit, finance, payroll and systems, all other activities associated with operating Business Centres are held at a local level.More than 350 Business Centres nationally generate total company turnover of over £1bn. Not bad for a privately owned business.Running a Business Centre is deemed internally to be the closest to running your own franchise without the risks associated with investing your own money. Business Centre Managers are encouraged to make their own decisions, from staff recruitment to pricing,sales strategy, overall profitability and cost control.Furthermore, the firms profit share scheme provides an extremely transparent and highly rewarding incentive; purely based against the profitability of individual Business Centres.Role SummaryImportantly, successful Business Centre Managers operating within this distributors structure are not your typical "Branch Manager" style people. This role is not about simply opening and closing the Business Centre, managing staff and serving customers.This person will take direction on which products to stock, with control over promoting and pricing their own stock, what customers to stock from, and what processes to implement especially across business development and account management.The Barnstaple business Centre has performed steadily for many years, having operated at the medium to high end for the region. Within this period it has remained profitable.The previous Business Centre Manager left in August of this year, having been in the position for a number of years. Although considered solid, sales activity within the Business Centre had become slightly stale. This person will inherit a team who are consideredto be willing and able but require direction from this recruit.The Regional Directors, sensibly, expects revenues to grow by 20% over the next two to three years, under the stewardship of this new leader.Candidate SummaryAside from the typical traits and experience expected from an individual managing a Business Centre / branch, the following areas are especially important in this incoming person:

• You will need to be a strong leader of people, with the gravitas to influence and change your teams approach to running the Business Centre. You will have a background of getting the best out of your staff
• You will demonstrate an entrepreneurial approach to your work to date. Dealing with and solving problems will be required from the off
• You will exhibit a natural curiosity about how the Business Centre has been operating and, where necessary, question the status quo.
• It is essential that you have strong experience of driving a fresh sales strategy, whilst leading sales development from the front. This is essential in both new business development, competitor analysis and cold, existing customers
• Having an analytical eye will also be important. The business will support this new recruit in producing the necessary data on past Business Centre performance, key performance indicators and customer data. It is essential that this person has a backgroundof taking such data and has pulled together fresh strategy off the back of it
• Product knowledge is not essential and so this opens up Collingwoods search to include such areas as Building product distributors (inc. civil, heavy side, light side, plumbing & heating) and Tool & plant
• You will need to reside around the Barnstaple area

Remuneration SummaryClearly this is a fantastic opportunity to join a market leading business, who have a strong, visible history of retaining the best staff.May be youre fed up with the office politics associated with working for a large corporate, or bored of the bureaucracy. Do you feel you have more to give and want to work for a business that allows you to make the decisions that will shape your regionmoving forwardAlong with a transparent and motivating profit share scheme that rewards achievement and progress, you can expect a competitive base salary that reflects you experience. Once performing as expected this candidate should enjoy a six figure salary.

Keyskills :
Business DevelopmentSales