Commercial Director

INTERNATIONAL RECRUITMENT & HR EXPERTS ACROSS THE PLASTICS, PACKAGING, SPECIALITY CHEMICALS, LIFE SCIENCES, BIOPOLYMER, FOOD ADDITIVES & INGREDIENTS, ENERGY AND RECYCLING SECTORS SINCE 1975.

Plastics manufacturer

Home based but with regular travel to Scotland. Ideal location will be Midlands, North West, Yorkshire, North East or Scotland

Job ref: CST/65168

Salary: £75000 basic salary + car

The Company:

Our client is a leading well-respected and long-standing plastics manufacturer that is seeking a Commercial Director to develop and implement a business strategy that will enable the company to refine its market focus, improve customer execution through a more partnership-led approach and deliver significant, sustainable sales growth.

Overview of role:

Reporting directly to the MD, this role is being created to lead the front-end growth of the business. The Commercial Director will own the sales, marketing and customer service functions - running them day-to-day while reshaping the commercial strategy - and act as a genuine strategic partner to the MD, jointly accountable for delivering the company's growth plan

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic partnership to the MD-

• Act as a close, analytically credible sounding board to the MD on commercial and wider business strategy, bringing structured thinking and data - not just opinion - to decisions.
• Co-own the company's growth strategy with the MD, deputising on commercial matters and representing the commercial function at senior leadership and board level.
• Agree and own a commercial KPI scorecard with the MD, covering sales growth, gross margin, cost-to-serve, distributor concentration, customer retention and service levels.
• Translate the strategy into a concrete, resourced commercial plan with clear ownership, milestones and measures of success.
• Provide the MD with regular, evidence-based reporting on commercial performance against the strategic plan, including the headline objective of delivering 25% sales growth within the next two years.

Customer and sales strategy-

• Lead a full mapping exercise of the customer base to identify spend thresholds and segment accounts by value and strategic fit.
• Run a rigorous cost-to-serve and margin analysis by account, to build an evidence-based (not purely size-based) case for which accounts to retain, grow, transition or exit.
• Reduce the active account base from 150+ to a focused list of under 20 strategically valuable accounts, targeting 80% of sales from the top 10 master distributors.
• Identify and re-engage lapsed customers who previously traded above the target spend threshold.
• Proactively target and win new strategically valuable distributor and key accounts, including in adjacent sectors and geographies, to replace lower-value volume and drive net growth.
• Decide, and build the commercial case for, a distributor-only vs. hybrid route-to-market model
• Review and refine the existing tiered pricing and terms framework, recommend enhancements in line with market drivers and manage its rollout to the distributor base.
• Design and implement a tiered pricing and terms framework and manage its rollout to the distributor base.
• Quantify revenue-at-risk from any accounts being transitioned or exited and own a mitigation plan per account.
• Lead the review of the trade show and exhibition programme, through the Marketing team, to identify and convert higher-spend prospects.

Commercial sales & marketing leadership-

• Own and upgrade the overall commercial and sales strategy, moving the function from reactive order-taking to proactive, targeted account management.
• Manage, coach and where necessary restructure the sales team to match the new strategic direction and required calibre.
• Own sales forecasting, pipeline and revenue reporting.
• Select, implement and manage a CRM system as the single source of truth for accounts, pipeline and customer activity, and embed its use across the sales, marketing and customer service teams.
• Work closely with Production and Product pillars to ensure the customer and product portfolios are simplified in a coordinated way.
• Directly manage the Marketing function, owning the marketing strategy, plan and budget so that brand, digital, campaign and exhibition activity generates qualified demand from target accounts.
• Directly manage the Customer Service / Sales Administration team, setting service standards and ensuring order processing and customer communication support a partnership approach with key accounts.

Person Profile:

Experience-

• Proven track record of delivering measurable sales and margin growth in a senior commercial leadership role (Commercial Director / Head of Sales / Commercial Manager or equivalent), ideally in a B2B manufacturing, industrial or distribution-led business.
• Direct experience of customer base rationalisation, account segmentation, or route-to-market redesign (e.g. distributor vs. direct, tiered pricing) - not just growing a book of business.
• Experience operating at or close to board/MD level, contributing to strategy rather than only executing it.
• Experience managing and developing a sales team, including performance management and capability upgrades.
• Experience of leading, or having direct responsibility for, marketing and customer service/sales administration teams.

Skills & attributes-

• Strong commercial and financial acumen - comfortable building and interrogating margin, cost-to-serve and pricing models.
• Highly analytical: able to develop account and sales data into clear segmentation, evidence-based decisions and a prioritised action plan.
• Strategic mindset with the ability to zoom out to the wider business plan and zoom in to individual account economics.
• Confident, credible operator at senior level - able to challenge constructively and act as a genuine thinking partner to the MD.
• Strong negotiation and relationship-management skills for senior distributor and key account relationships.
• Growth-oriented and commercially entrepreneurial - able to spot, shape and close new business opportunities, not just manage existing accounts.
• Comfortable leading change - including difficult conversations around exiting or transitioning unprofitable accounts.
• Proficient with data/analysis tools (advanced Excel as a minimum; CRM and BI tool experience an advantage) , with hands-on experience of implementing and embedding a CRM system.

Please understand that due to the expected high number of applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted directly

Applicants must have the legal right to work in the country where the role is located. Evidence of the right to work may be required during the recruitment process

For reasons of readability, gender-specific language has been simplified. All references to individuals apply equally to people of all genders.

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