Business Centre Manager

Job Description

The companyCollingwood is proud to be the retained Search partner with this genuine UK leading distributor, who service both trade (contractors) and public sectors within specialist ranges of technical / building products.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. Aside from audit, finance, payroll and systems, all other activities associated with operating BusinessCentres 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.The business has a hugely envious apprenticeship and graduate programme that has ran nationally for a number of years. Role ContextThe Cardiff Business Centre has not fully recovered its performance since the crash of 2008. The Regional Director attributes this to two key factors:Led by the manager, the regional staff have not driven new business and dormant account sales strategies, especially amongst the smaller, locally based contractorsThe 11, mainly long serving, staff situated at this centre have lacked leadership and direction. This has rubbed off on the service levels and is a major reason why many contractors are either unaware or not using their services.This person will want to assess the suitability of the team inherited and make speedy decisions on who is capable and motivated, together with the ones s/he will want to move on.Through analysing data available, plus his experience of running the region, the Regional Director anticipates a 50% increase in revenue for this Business Centre over the next five years.Importantly, 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 ownership of their own business within a business and Collingwood will be assessing against this depth of experience.What we require in youAside 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. You will, therefore, have a history of inheriting teams and regions, with demonstratable experience of changing approachesto work for the better
• 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, heavyside, lightside, plumbing & heating), Tool & plant, Business supplies, Estate agents, Retail outlets, Logisticsand any B2B distributor / wholesaler
• You will need to reside around the Cardiff area

And in returnClearly 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 region movingforward