Role: General Manager
Location: North Shields, Newcastle upon Tyne
Salary: Circa £75,000 + Bonus + Car Allowance
Working Hours: Full time, 24/7 operational leadership with flexibility across all shifts
Role Overview:
We are seeking an exceptional General Manager to take autonomous ownership of a high‑volume industrial laundry operation processing over 30 million items per year. This is a senior leadership role with full operational and commercial responsibility for a complex, continuous production environment operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Reporting directly to the UK Managing Director of a multinational plc, you will lead the site as a true business unit, ensuring consistent output, quality, service levels and operational performance, while also shaping the long‑term development of the business. This includes identifying new market opportunities, strengthening customer relationships, and driving strategic growth over the next decade.
The successful candidate will combine strong operational leadership with commercial acumen, engineering and asset management capability, and the ability to build a high‑performance culture across a large workforce. This is a hands‑on, autonomous leadership role requiring visible presence, operational credibility and the ability to build trust while driving measurable improvement. You will take full responsibility for a large‑scale, continuous processing operation running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Beyond day‑to‑day performance, you will play a central role in shaping the future of the site, identifying new market areas, developing commercial opportunities and building the capability required to grow over the next decade.
You will be responsible for:
- Full site leadership of c.250 staff across a 24/7 operation, ensuring consistent output, quality and service levels
- Engineering & asset management, including plant reliability, capital investment planning and continuous improvement
- Transport & logistics, ensuring fleet operations support on‑time collection and delivery
- Customer service, maintaining and growing strong relationships with key accounts
- P&L ownership, managing the site as a genuine business unit with full accountability for performance
- Commercial & market development, working with the Board to identify new sectors, customers and growth opportunities
- People leadership, building a strong management team and developing a high‑performance, engaged culture across all shifts
- Compliance & standards, ensuring the site meets all regulatory, H&S and quality requirements (ISO 9000, 14000, 45000 and EN 14065)
The site sits at the centre of UK operations and presents a genuine opportunity to enhance alignment, capability and performance standards while building new commercial pathways for long‑term growth.
About You:
You will likely be:
- A senior site leader from large‑scale, high‑volume production or manufacturing - industrial laundry, textiles, FMCG or similar
- Experienced in running 24/7 operations with multi‑shift workforce leadership
- Strong across engineering/maintenance, transport/logistics and customer service
- Commercially astute, confident identifying and pursuing new markets and revenue streams
- Comfortable operating autonomously and reporting directly into Board level
- Hands‑on, resilient and credible - equally effective on the shop floor and in the boardroom
- Strong in people leadership, capable of building capability and culture across a large workforce
This role would suit a credible senior leader ready to take full ownership of a complex site while shaping its long‑term commercial direction.
Why Apply?:
- Senior leadership visibility and influence
- Full ownership of a major UK operation within a multinational plc
- Opportunity to drive measurable operational and commercial improvement
- Long‑term scope to shape the site’s future direction
- Competitive executive remuneration package commensurate with experience
Don’t meet every single requirement? At Realise, we are dedicated to helping our clients build diverse, inclusive and authentic workplaces, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every requirement, we would encourage you to apply anyway! You might be just the candidate we're looking for!
Realise HR Ltd is operating as an employment agency on behalf of its clients. We may keep your CV on file for the purposes of providing recruitment services and in accordance with our privacy policy which can be found on our website. www.realisehr.co.uk
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