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Universal Business Team

Managing Director

Northampton , United Kingdom
full-time

AI overview

Drive company growth from £7m to £12m turnover while enhancing accountability and performance across all departments in a family-run business.

Job Title: Managing Director (Family-run SME)

Salary/Package: Overall package £150,000 (DOE) + LTIP - Basic salary upto £120,000
Location: Northampton


We are working in partnership with a a growing, family-run business targeting £7m → £12m turnover in 3 years and to take EBITDA from 7% to 10%. They are looking to appoint an experienced Managing Director who inspires, sets high standards, and builds accountability so every department hits its numbers, every month.

You’ll deliver:

  • Growth & Strategy: Translate ambition into an actionable plan with targets, cadence, and ownership.
  • Accountability: Install performance management across Ops, Sales, Finance & Marketing.
  • Operations: Hit OTIF consistently; fix bottlenecks and improve lead times.
  • Sales: Overachieve new business and margin targets; improve forecast accuracy.
  • Finance: Reduce debtor days; strengthen cash conversion and working capital.
  • Marketing: Maximise ROI; align spend tightly to qualified pipeline and revenue.
  • Culture: Honesty, Adaptability, Trust, Positive Attitude, Desire to Excel.

Requirements

  • Track record of growth: Taken an SME or business unit from £5–15m or higher to materially higher revenue with improved profitability.
  • Accountability builder: Has implemented KPIs, dashboards, cadences (daily huddles, weekly performance reviews, monthly board packs, quarterly OKRs).
  • Cross-functional leadership: Comfortable directing Ops, Sales, Finance, Marketing; financially literate and understands OTIF, pipeline quality, cash conversion, and marketing ROI.
  • People leadership: Direct, fair, and supportive; coaches hard, sets clear expectations, follows through on consequences.

Background

  • Roles: MD/GM/Commercial Director from a trading/buy/sell background.
  • Evidence of: OTIF improvement, margin discipline, DSO reduction, sales forecast accuracy uplift, marketing ROI gains.
  • Built or matured: RACI, S&OP, OKRs, Board packs, and sales/ops cadences.
  • Financial fluency: P&L ownership, working capital management, pricing & margin governance.

Leadership style & behaviours

  • Clarity + Cadence: Sets a small set of critical metrics; reviews them relentlessly.
  • High standards + Empathy: Holds people to account while developing capability.
  • Data‑driven storytelling: Turns numbers into decisions and action.
  • Bias to action: Resolves blockers quickly; removes complexity.
  • Builder: Upgrades people, processes, and systems in parallel.

Benefits

What’s in it for you:

  • Autonomy to shape strategy, culture and the leadership team.
  • Performance-led package tied to growth, margin, OTIF, cash conversion & ROI.
  • Proposed Salary - Basic salary up to £120k with an overall package of £150k including Bonuses and Benefits. Plus an additional LTIP – (Long Term Incentive Plan)

IND25

 Universal Business Team

Universal Business Team (“UBT”) is a global enterprise spanning 19 countries across the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, Central America and Australasia. UBT, headquartered in Sydney, Australia, is a diversified business consultancy that supports clients with business-advisory and group-buying services with the objective to help businesses develop a competitive edge. UBT was launched in 2009 in response to the Global Financial Crisis to support client organisations that were either in distress or looking to improve their competitiveness and financial performance. Currently, UBT turns over $500M (AUD) and has aspirations for significant growth over the next three to five years. A recent decision was made to bring four separate global regions together under the one global brand and leadership team. UBT’s business advisory services comprise corporate training, consulting, recruitment, accounting, and group buying services. UBT facilitates leadership and business excellence for our client’s in their respective industries. Through the group buying function, UBT nurtures mutually-beneficial relationships between member businesses and world-leading providers of business goods and services. The outcome to which we strive is a “win-win” for small-to-medium enterprises and big business alike. UBT provides services and products to approximately 3,000 independent, family-owned businesses globally with combined annual revenues exceeding $12B (AUD). The majority are small to medium sized enterprises with typical annual revenue ranges between $5m-$20m. However, there are also some larger businesses with annual revenues in the range of $100m-$250m. The unifying feature of all UBT’s clients is that the owners are parishioners of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC). UBT (which is owned by the PBCC) supports clients by providing products, services and support designed to increase their profitability and growth. The after-tax profits generated by UBT are reinvested into community initiatives, predominantly through schools (established to educate the children of Brethren families) and charities, such as the Rapid Relief Team (“RRT”) and the Red Cross. UBT Recruitment are an Equal Opportunities Employer. We will apply a rigorous, objective selection process using non-discriminatory criteria, as far as possible on behalf of all the businesses we recruit for.To view our policy in full please contact [email protected]

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Salary
£120,000 – £150,000 per year
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