Sales Manager / General Manager Designate

This is a fantastic opportunity for an ambitious Senior/Sales Manager with a ‘Trader’ mindset to progress their career with an industrial packaging manufacturer who have developed a succession plan for the role to develop into a General Manager position.

Our established client is a profitable North West operation engaged in the purchasing and sales/distribution of industrial packaging, as well as small batch production and printing of large items of industrial packaging. Their main markets in the UK include the agricultural, food processing, mineral/aggregates, recycling and waste management sectors.

On appointment, the successful candidate will focus on familiarising themselves with the management of the sales operation and, longer term, this will remain a major aspect of the overall role. Responsibilities will include:

• Accompanying sales visits to customers part of the week to understand day‑to‑day servicing of accounts, assess current working practices and gain an overall grasp of the existing customer base, pricing structures and marketplace.
• With support from the client’s management team, gaining a working knowledge of how orders are received, processed and dispatched, as well as building up product knowledge and appreciation of current supply lines.

In the second phase, once established in heading the sales function, you will begin to spend more time familiarising yourself with general business management. In this stage your involvement will include:

• Drawing up and implementing plans to grow the business and identifying additional resources needed in the short term (annual budgets) and medium term.
• Gaining knowledge of financial reporting, controlling and assessing operations, and how cash flows through the business.
• Understanding the company’s procedures for managing debt collection, customer credit limits, warehouse/logistics functions and computer systems.
• Regular reporting to stakeholders.
• Monitoring & control of stock; initiating and authorising purchases.
• Managing day‑to‑day import logistics.
• Authorisation, measurement and control of overhead costs; recruitment; day‑to‑day management of all staff and staff incentive targets.
• Health & safety, site maintenance, security, suppliers visits.

The client will also consider candidates already at general manager level who are sales leads and have experience in a hands‑on role within an SME manufacturing environment.

To find out more about this fantastic opportunity and develop your career, please send your CV in MS Word format (.doc/.docx) along with supporting information.