Aspen Fabrications
Commercial & Business Development Manager
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Company Description
Aspen Fabrications is a UK-based manufacturer of hygienic stainless steel drainage, wall kerbing, and protection products, designed and produced in-house using high-grade 304 or 316 stainless steel. With over 30 years of refinement, Aspen delivers durable, high-performance solutions and offers a turnkey service including design input, component manufacture, and installation. The product range serves diverse sectors such as chemical and pharmaceutical processing, food and drink production, cold stores, leisure, education, warehousing, and automotive and engineering. Through Aspen's bespoke offering, the company provides direct engineering expertise for custom projects, supported by UKCA marking and BS EN 1090-3 certification.
Role Purpose
The Commercial & Business Development Manager will lead the commercial development of Aspen, with particular responsibility for growing the company's independent customer base, developing recurring fabrication business and progressively assuming day-to-day commercial leadership of the business. The role is central to Aspen's strategy of reducing its reliance on parent company generated turnover while continuing to provide a responsive and commercially competitive stainless-steel service to the wider Group. Working initially alongside the existing Aspen leadership, the successful candidate will undertake a structured onboarding and handover programme covering customers, products, pricing, CRM, pipeline management and commercial processes, progressively assuming responsibility for Aspen's commercial direction and customer relationships.
Key Responsibilities
Business Development & Growth
- Develop and manage a strong pipeline of new independent Aspen customers
- Identify, engage and convert suitable recurring fabrication customers, particularly businesses capable of providing repeatable rather than low-value one-off work
- Lead the progression of prospective customers from initial contact through to sustainable recurring business
- Develop existing customer relationships to increase order frequency, value and long-term commercial potential
- Identify new markets and applications where Aspen's stainless-steel fabrication capabilities can provide a competitive solution
- Support the development of architect, specifier and other new-market opportunities where these demonstrate commercial potential
- Maintain an appropriate balance between revenue growth, margin and operational capability
Sales & Commercial Management
- Take progressive ownership of Aspen's sales pipeline
- Maintain accurate CRM records, opportunities, forecasts and customer actions
- Establish disciplined follow-up of quotations, opportunities and customer enquiries
- Review pricing and commercial proposals to ensure appropriate margins are achieved
- Develop a clear understanding of actual margin by customer, product and project
- Participate in pipeline, margin, WIP and business-review meetings
- Provide clear and proactive reporting on revenue, order book, pipeline, risks and opportunities
- Ensure commercial commitments are aligned with available capacity, cost, quality and achievable lead times
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Key Account & Customer Relationship Management
- Develop strong, long-term relationships with Aspen's existing and prospective customers
- Become the principal commercial contact for key independent Aspen accounts
- Understand customer requirements and translate them into commercially viable opportunities
- Work closely with technical and operational colleagues when developing non-standard or engineered solutions
- Attend customer meetings and site visits where appropriate
- Build relationships based on responsiveness, technical credibility, quality and dependable delivery
Parent Company Support
- Work closely with Group Sales and Contracts teams to support opportunities requiring Aspen stainless-steel capability
- Ensure Group originated work is responded to professionally and commercially
- Coordinate internally to confirm technical requirements, quotations, capacity and delivery expectations
- Maintain a productive relationship between Aspen and the wider Group while ensuring sufficient focus remains on developing Aspen's independent business
Business Leadership
- Progressively assume day-to-day commercial leadership of Aspen
- Provide clear priorities and direction across sales and customer-facing activity
- Work closely with Operations to ensure sales commitments are supported by manufacturing capacity, purchasing, quality and delivery capability
- Support the development of an accountable, commercially focused culture
- Ensure decisions consider revenue, margin, quality, customer service and operational consequences
- Identify commercial or operational risks early and ensure appropriate action is taken
- Contribute to annual business planning, budgeting and strategic development
- Undertake employee appraisals and support the development of the Aspen team as leadership responsibility transfers
Key Measures of Success
Performance should be assessed against a combination of commercial outcomes and progress against agreed milestones rather than turnover alone, as the strategy recognises that customer decisions and operational delivery also affect conversion. Key performance measures to include:
- Growth in independent Aspen revenue
- Development of new recurring fabrication customers
- Quality and value of the qualified sales pipeline
- Customer retention and development of existing accounts
- Quotation conversion and follow-up performance
- Gross margin and actual margin performance
- CRM accuracy and forecast visibility
- Development of new market, architect and specifier opportunities where commercially appropriate.
- Responsiveness and effectiveness of support provided to parent company
- Successful transition of commercial leadership from the existing consultancy arrangement
Person Specification
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Essential
- Proven B2B business-development or commercial experience within manufacturing, engineering, fabrication or a related technical environment
- Demonstrable experience developing new customers and converting opportunities into sustainable commercial relationships
- Strong commercial judgement with a good understanding of pricing, margin and profitability
- Comfortable selling engineered or technically led products and services
- Ability to understand drawings, specifications and customer technical requirements at a commercially useful level
- Strong relationship-building and customer-facing skills
- Experience managing a structured sales pipeline and CRM system
- Ability to work effectively across Sales, Operations, Production, Purchasing and technical functions.
- Strong communication, negotiation and presentation skills
- Self-motivated and comfortable taking ownership of commercial performance
- Able to combine strategic thinking with hands-on customer and business-development activity
Desirable
- Experience within stainless-steel fabrication, sheet metal, drainage, food manufacturing, construction products or associated sectors
- Experience developing recurring subcontract-manufacturing or OEM customers
- Experience dealing with architects, specifiers or technically led sales channels
- Previous responsibility for a business unit, commercial team or significant customer portfolio
- Experience of working closely with manufacturing operations, outsourced suppliers or supply partners.
Personal Attributes
The successful candidate will be:
- Commercially driven without pursuing turnover at the expense of margin
- Proactive and comfortable opening new customer relationships
- Technically curious and able to establish credibility with customers
- Structured and disciplined in pipeline and follow-up management
- Collaborative with operational and technical colleagues
- Comfortable challenging existing practices where improvement is required
- Pragmatic and capable of operating within an SME/manufacturing environment
- Capable of developing into the recognised day-to-day leader of Aspen
Initial 12-Month Development & Handover
The successful candidate will work through a structured transition programme with the existing Aspen leadership
- Initial phase: Understand Aspen's products, manufacturing capability, customers, pricing, CRM, pipeline and relationship with JLL
- Development phase: Work jointly on target accounts, existing customers, recurring fabrication opportunities, new-market opportunities and key Group interfaces
- Leadership transition: Progressively assume ownership of pipeline reviews, customer relationships, quotations, commercial priorities and routine commercial management
- End position: Operate as Aspen's senior commercial leader, capable of continuing the growth strategy and managing day-to-day commercial activity with reduced dependency on the existing consultancy arrangement
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