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Commercial Manager
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Finance & Commercial Manager
MBE Fabrications Ltd / Premier Pits
Donington, Lincolnshire
Reporting to Shareholders / Board
Leadership status Senior Management Team
Direct reports Financial Manager / finance team
Working pattern Predominantly site-based, with flexibility by agreement
Package Competitive salary + performance-related bonus; package to be agreed
The Opportunity
MBE Fabrications / Premier Pits is an established UK engineering and fabrication business entering a new phase of growth following a change of ownership. The shareholders are seeking a commercially minded Finance & Commercial Director who can strengthen financial control, improve commercial decision-making and become a proactive leadership partner to the shareholders and senior management team.
This is not a reporting-only finance role. The successful candidate will be expected to understand the factory, customers, projects and people; challenge constructively; identify savings and margin opportunities; and turn financial information into action.
The business is building toward a three-year ambition of £10m+ revenue and £1m+ EBITDA, supported by growth in Premier Pits, Premier Substructures, specialist fabrication / VHS, rail and international channels.
Role Purpose
To lead finance and commercial performance across the business, establishing reliable controls, forecasting, job profitability, working-capital discipline and management information, while acting as a hands-on commercial partner to the shareholders and operational leadership team.
Key Responsibilities
Financial Leadership & Control
- Own the monthly management accounts, budgeting, forecasting and board reporting process.
- Build and maintain a robust 13-week cash-flow forecast and longer-range cash visibility.
- Lead working-capital management, debtor control, creditor strategy and banking / invoice-finance relationships.
- Ensure strong balance-sheet control, reconciliations, payroll oversight, tax coordination, audit readiness and financial governance.
- Improve the quality, speed and reliability of management information.
Commercial Performance
- Create clear job-by-job profitability and margin reporting.
- Introduce quote-to-actual analysis covering labour, materials, subcontract, installation and transport.
- Challenge pricing, cost recovery, purchasing and margin leakage.
- Identify and lead cost-saving and procurement initiatives with measurable benefits.
- Support major quotations, contracts, customer negotiations and commercial risk assessment.
- Develop divisional profitability reporting across Premier Pits, Substructures, rail and other fabrication activities.
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Leadership & Business Partnering
- Be an active member of the Senior Management Team, not simply the finance representative.
- Challenge Sales, Manufacturing and Installations constructively and support cross-functional decisions.
- Develop and present weekly / monthly KPI packs to shareholders and management.
- Translate financial performance into clear actions, owners and deadlines.
- Support the three-year growth plan, investment cases, recruitment planning and capacity decisions.
- Build a high-performing finance function and coach / develop the existing finance team.
Systems & Transformation
- Strong use of Sage and improvement of current finance processes and controls.
- Reduce dependence on disconnected spreadsheets and improve data ownership.
- Support evaluation and implementation of future ERP / MRP, CRM and reporting tools.
- Improve WIP, stock, labour, job-cost and project visibility.
- Support future acquisitions and integration work where required.
Candidate Profile
- Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) preferred.
- Strong Sage experience and confidence working hands-on with financial systems.
- Manufacturing, fabrication, engineering, project-based or other operationally complex SME experience strongly preferred.
- Track record in an owner-managed, entrepreneurial, PE-backed or similarly fast-moving environment.
- Evidence of improving or turning around financial / commercial performance.
- Strong cash, working-capital, forecasting and lender-management capability.
- Good understanding of job costing, WIP, standard costing, labour recovery and manufacturing margins.
- Evidence of delivering cost reduction, procurement savings or margin-improvement initiatives.
- Commercially curious and willing to spend time with sales, factory and site teams.
- Confident challenging senior colleagues and presenting directly to shareholders.
- Practical, decisive and capable of moving between strategic issues and operational detail.
- Able to build trust quickly while raising standards and accountability.
What Success Looks Like in the First 6 Months
- Reliable weekly cash, working-capital and forward forecast reporting.
- A clean, trusted monthly management-account and board-pack rhythm.
- Clear profitability visibility by job / division and stronger margin control.
- Improved debtor, creditor and cash-conversion discipline.
- Documented cost-saving / procurement programme with quantified benefits.
- Clear finance-team structure, responsibilities and development plan.
- Better cross-functional challenge between finance, sales, manufacturing and installations.
- A defined systems roadmap for Sage, reporting, CRM / ERP / MRP integration.
- Credible financial support for the £10m+ revenue / £1m+ EBITDA three-year plan.
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Leadership Potential
The immediate appointment is Finance & Commercial Director. For an exceptional candidate, there is scope for the role to develop into broader business leadership / Managing Director responsibility as the company grows and as capability is demonstrated.
Search Guidance for Recruiter
- Search to be conducted confidentially.
- Do not contact current MBE / Premier Pits employees or identify the company in public advertising without approval.
- Prioritise candidates within practical reach of South Lincolnshire, including Lincolnshire, Peterborough, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and surrounding East Midlands locations.
- We want evidence of impact, not simply tenure: turnaround, cash improvement, cost reduction, margin improvement, systems implementation or leadership through growth.
- Please provide a short written assessment against the brief for every shortlisted candidate, including current package, notice period, location and reason for interest.
Interview Themes
- Give an example of a manufacturing / project business where you materially improved cash or working capital.
- How have you identified and stopped margin leakage at job level?
- What cost-saving initiative have you personally led and what was the quantified result?
- How do you challenge a Sales or Operations Director without damaging the relationship?
- What would you expect to understand in your first 30 days in a £6m-£7m engineering business?
- Describe a finance function or reporting process you inherited that was not fit for purpose and how you fixed it.
- How have you used Sage or other ERP / MRP systems to improve commercial decision-making?
- What information would you insist on presenting to shareholders every week and every month?
We are looking for someone who tells the shareholders what they need to hear, not simply what they want to hear.
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