Country Manager

The Country Manager for the UK holds full accountability for the sales performance and operational delivery within the UK. This role is responsible for driving sustainable revenue growth, ensuring high-quality service delivery, and aligning local execution with group strategy and standards. Acting as the senior leader in-country, this role serves as the face of the organisation to customers, partners, and stakeholders, while operating effectively within a matrix structure across group functions.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and deliver UK revenue targets, ensuring consistent and sustainable growth.
• Drive a high-performance sales culture focused on quality pipeline, conversion, and long-term customer value.
• Ensure adoption and full utilisation of Group systems and processes.
• Oversee pricing strategies, commercial models, and contractual frameworks to optimise profitability.
• Identify and capture new market opportunities, including sector expansion and strategic partnerships.

Service Delivery & Operational Performance

• Hold full accountability for local operational performance, ensuring efficient and high-quality service delivery.
• Manage cost of service delivery, driving productivity and route density optimisation.
• Ensure operational excellence through adherence to group processes, systems, and performance standards.
• Foster a continuous improvement mindset, embedding LEAN and Six Sigma principles where appropriate.
• Own local financial performance and P&L, including revenue, cost control, and contribution margins.
• Maintain accountability for local working capital elements, including inventory and debt management.
• Partner with central Finance teams to ensure accurate forecasting, reporting, and financial discipline.

Matrix Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work in close partnership with central Marketing and HR functions, holding joint accountability for strategic priorities and initiatives, budget alignment and optimisation, and people and capability development.
• Leverage central IT and Finance services to support operational effectiveness and scalability.
• Lead through influence within a matrix structure, ensuring alignment between local and group objectives.

Market Leadership & External Representation

• Act as the primary representative of the business in the UK market.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key customers, partners, and stakeholders.
• Work closely with the Group Marketing function to strengthen brand presence and reputation across the UK.
• Continuously gather and analyse market intelligence, including competitor activity, customer needs, and emerging trends.
• Provide structured input into group-level product development and innovation initiatives.
• Ensure the UK market perspective is clearly represented in strategic decision-making.

Governance & Compliance

• Ensure full compliance with group processes, systems, and governance frameworks.
• Uphold regulatory, legal, and ethical standards across all UK operations.
• Embed a culture of accountability, transparency, and high performance.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Proven experience in senior leadership roles with full P&L responsibility.
• Experience operating B2B critical services environments.
• Experience operating within PE-backed / international / matrix / multi-site environments.
• Demonstrated track record of delivering sustainable growth and quality of service.
• Experience leading teams.

Skills & Attributes

• Technical / Functional Skills: Strong commercial acumen, including pricing strategy, contract negotiation, and commercial modelling. Deep understanding of pipeline management, forecasting, and sales performance frameworks. Experience applying LEAN, Six Sigma, or continuous improvement methodologies. Solid financial management capability, including budgeting, forecasting, and cost control.
• Commercial / Analytical Capability: Demonstrated ability to define and execute sales strategies that deliver sustainable revenue growth and margin improvement. Strong expertise in the application of pricing strategy, including value-based pricing, margin optimisation, and discount governance. Proven experience negotiating complex B2B contracts, including multi-year agreements, SLAs, and varied commercial models. Advanced capability in pipeline management and forecasting, driving accuracy, visibility, and conversion performance. Strong understanding of customer profitability, balancing revenue growth with cost-to-serve considerations. Commercially astute decision-maker, able to assess opportunities, risks, and partnerships to maximise business value. Confident in using financial and commercial data to inform strategic decisions and challenge stakeholders effectively.
• Leadership / Influence: Strategic thinker with strong execution focus. Highly collaborative, with the ability to influence across functions and geographies. Data-driven and process-oriented mindset. Strong stakeholder management and communication capability. Resilient, adaptable, and able to lead through change and transformation.

Behavioural Criteria

• Demonstrates ownership and accountability.
• Collaborates effectively across functions and geographies.
• Balances pace with quality and data-led decision making.
• Builds trust through transparency and integrity.
• Challenges constructively and supports others to succeed.
• Creative, entrepreneurial and bold.

Measures of Success

• Revenue growth and market share expansion.
• Sales pipeline health and conversion rates.
• Customer satisfaction and retention.
• Operational productivity and route density optimisation.
• Financial performance (margin, cash, cost control).
• Employee engagement and capability development.