Head of Commercial

Flexible UK location: West Midlands or South East preferred; regular travel to key sites in these locations

Can you turn commercial insight into stronger margins and bring people with you?

Wilson Brook is partnering with a substantial, private equity-backed manufacturing and distribution group to recruit a Head of Commercial. The business supplies a broad portfolio of products, from commodity lines to differentiated, value-added solutions, with customer service, processing and delivery playing an important part in its proposition.

This newly created, senior-level opportunity will establish a more coherent commercial approach and help unlock significant untapped profit potential. Early pricing initiatives have already demonstrated a material financial benefit. The group now wants an experienced leader to accelerate progress, build the right infrastructure and create lasting commercial discipline.

The opportunity

Pricing and margin improvement will be the immediate priority. Today, similar pricing can sometimes be applied to very different customer propositions: a full-load delivery and a small, urgent depot order may carry substantially different costs and value. You will develop a more considered pricing approach that recognises product differentiation, customer segments, order size, service levels and cost-to-serve, while remaining commercially competitive.

You will translate existing commercial data and market intelligence into clear pricing recommendations, then establish practical frameworks, system-based controls and appropriate flexibility. The business has useful data, capable systems, an experienced IT team and FP&A support; the challenge is to bring those resources together into tools and processes that sales colleagues use consistently.

You will also strengthen discount and rebate governance, moving from largely relationship-based arrangements towards structured incentives with clear performance expectations, review and follow-through. Contract and bid pricing, customer terms and the management of longer-term pricing risk will form part of the broader remit.

Working closely with Sales Directors and their teams, you will provide the analysis and recommendations that inform pricing and margin decisions. Sales retains direct accountability for margin performance; your success will depend on giving colleagues confidence in the evidence, winning support and ensuring practical adoption. You will also contribute to commercial forecasting and budgeting and help convert good ideas into deliverable plans.

Initially focused on a major distribution operation, the role has scope to expand into the group’s manufacturing activities and eventually develop stronger links between customer demand, product management, procurement and profitability. You will recruit and develop dedicated pricing/analytical support, while working closely with Finance, IT, Marketing and other functions.

About you

You may currently be a Head of Commercial, Head of Pricing, Pricing Director, Commercial Excellence leader or a senior pricing/commercial manager ready for a broader remit. What matters most is evidence that you have personally improved pricing practice in a complex business and persuaded commercial teams to adopt the changes.

Your experience will include:

• Designing and implementing pricing strategies, controls or commercial frameworks that demonstrably improved margins or profitability.
• Understanding B2B manufacturing or distribution economics, including customer segmentation, service cost, commodity products and differentiated value propositions.
• Building trust with experienced sales leaders and teams, constructively challenging assumptions and overcoming resistance to change.
• Personally analysing pricing and customer data, testing hypotheses and turning findings into compelling, implementable proposals; strong Excel and analytical fluency are important.
• Improving customer rebates, discounts, contracts or bid pricing, and contributing meaningfully to forecasting, budgeting and commercial planning.
• Implementing change across functions, developing colleagues and establishing processes that remain effective after the initial project.

We are open-minded about sector background: specific product knowledge would be useful but is not essential. Comparable experience in building products, industrial distribution, technical products, packaging or other B2B environments is highly relevant. We will value achievements and the ability to influence more highly than job title or product knowledge alone.

You will be commercially curious, numerically strong, pragmatic and resilient. This is a visible, people-facing appointment: you must be equally comfortable working through detailed analysis and explaining a sensitive pricing recommendation to experienced sales colleagues. The right person will bring pace and conviction without imposing change for its own sake.

Location and application

Location is flexible, with the Midlands and the South East particularly practical for access to key sites. Regular visits to other operations and some overnight travel will be expected, alongside homeworking where appropriate.

This is a confidential search. Further information about the group, the role and its wider growth opportunity will be shared with suitable candidates as discussions progress.

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