Wilson Brook Consulting
General Manager
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General Manager – Specialist B2B Distribution
Highly Autonomous SME | Significant Profit-Related Earnings
We are conducting a confidential search for a General Manager to lead a highly profitable, specialist B2B distribution business based in Welwyn Garden City.
The company operates as an autonomous SME within a much larger privately owned international group. It is an established, successful business with a strong reputation, experienced team, loyal customer base and attractive margins.
This is not a turnaround.
The opportunity is to take responsibility for a well-run business, protect what already works and then shape its next phase of profitable growth.
The operating model is deliberately decentralised. The General Manager will have genuine ownership of the business and considerable freedom to decide how best to develop it. You will be accountable for the result rather than simply implementing instructions from head office.
In practical terms, you will have responsibility for:
- Full P&L and working-capital performance
- Sales, margin and profitable growth
- Customer and supplier relationships
- Buying, pricing and commercial decision-making
- Product, market and customer strategy
- Stock and operational performance
- Leadership and development of the team
- New-business development and pipeline
- Identifying adjacent products and markets
- Investment proposals to support future growth
- Shaping how the business should evolve over the longer term
The business predominantly supplies specialist products into industrial and other B2B markets on a national basis. It has a deliberately focused product range rather than trying to be everything to everybody, and its success has historically been built around service, availability, specialist knowledge and close customer relationships rather than simply competing on price.
There is considerable freedom to identify where future growth should come from. That could involve developing existing customers, finding new customers, broadening the product proposition, entering adjacent markets, strengthening supplier partnerships or developing new routes to market.
The business also trades internally with other companies within the wider group, creating an additional opportunity to develop internal supply relationships alongside the external customer base.
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Investment is available where there is a strong commercial case. The successful General Manager will therefore be encouraged to think entrepreneurially about the future structure, capacity and growth of the business rather than simply managing today's operation.
The Opportunity
This is essentially an opportunity to run a business as if it were your own, but with the financial strength, supplier network and resources of a much larger group behind you.
The wider organisation operates a decentralised profit-centre model. Local leaders are trusted to make commercial decisions, move quickly and take responsibility for results. There is limited bureaucracy and considerable scope for a strong General Manager to influence what the business becomes.
The initial priority will be to understand the team, customers, suppliers and economics of the business and protect its successful service-led culture. From there, the expectation is to identify where the next phase of profitable growth can come from.
This is not a passive management role. A meaningful proportion of annual revenue is project-related, so the business must continually develop new opportunities and replenish its pipeline. The General Manager therefore needs to enjoy the commercial side of leadership and be comfortable driving both new-business development and existing-account growth.
There is also an opportunity to continue modernising aspects of the business, including CRM, pricing discipline, commercial data, quoting processes, stock efficiency and the intelligent use of new technology, while retaining the entrepreneurial pace that has made the company successful.
Who Are We Looking For?
We are deliberately keeping the sector background relatively broad.
You might currently be a:
- General Manager
- Managing Director of a smaller SME
- Business Unit Manager
- Branch or Depot Manager
- Regional leader looking to return to a more entrepreneurial single-business role
- Commercial or Sales Director ready for broader P&L responsibility
Relevant backgrounds could include specialist B2B distribution, industrial supply, technical wholesale, building products, electrical or plumbing distribution, merchanting, materials distribution, plastics and/or packaging or other product-led B2B environments.
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Specific product knowledge is not essential. What matters much more is understanding the economics of distribution: buying well, selling well, protecting margin, managing stock and working capital, developing customers and recognising a good commercial opportunity when you see one.
You will need to be:
- Commercially sharp and numerate
- Sales-led and customer-facing
- Entrepreneurial and comfortable making decisions
- Strong on relationships with customers and suppliers
- Credible with an experienced team
- Strategic enough to think about where the business goes next
- Hands-on enough to stay close to the detail
- Comfortable operating with significant autonomy and accountability
- Energetic, proactive and motivated by profitable growth
This role would particularly suit someone who has become frustrated by the bureaucracy of a larger corporate environment and wants the freedom to genuinely influence how a business is run.
Reward
The remuneration model reflects the entrepreneurial nature of the role.
There is a competitive executive package together with a significant profit-related bonus opportunity, meaning that strong business performance can take total annual earnings comfortably into six figures.
The philosophy is straightforward: if you grow the business profitably and create value, you share meaningfully in the success.
Location
The business is based in Welwyn Garden City, and the General Manager will need to live within a sensible commuting distance.
This is a visible leadership role rather than a remote management position. The successful candidate will spend meaningful time with the team, customers and suppliers, with some travel across the UK.
Why Consider It?
If you want to run a successful SME with genuine authority over how it develops — while retaining the security, investment capacity and resources of a much larger group — this is an unusually attractive opportunity.
You will inherit a profitable platform, an experienced team and strong customer relationships. What happens next will largely be down to you.
To apply please send your CV in confidence to ethan@wilsonbrook.com
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