Logistics Director | Industrial Product Manufacturing

The Client

Founded in 1942, Collingwood’s client is a privately owned UK manufacturer specialising in cable management solutions for commercial, industrial, healthcare, and educational environments. The business produces a wide range of PVC-U and metal trunking systems, conduit, cable trays, fire safety clips, and bespoke wiring solutions.

Headcount over the three main sites in the UK stand at 140, and this manufacturer has grown by approximately £10 million over the past six years.

The business’s main warehousing and logistics hub in Manchester had recently enjoyed £1 million investment, having nearly doubled in size over the last 18 months.

The business maintains a family-oriented, non-corporate culture with many long-serving staff, led by an experienced board with a fresh vision for continued growth.

The Role

The objective of this role was to unify and elevate logistics performance across all three sites, introducing strategic oversight, modernising processes, and driving consistency to support the company’s continued growth ambitions.

Reporting directly to the Managing Director, with regular board-level reporting, the Logistics Director would take direct responsibility for two Logistics Managers and a Warehouse Manager, with established operational teams sitting beneath them.

Aside from the typical needs and skillset associated with a logistics leader, key considerations included:

• The incoming person would need to unify three geographically dispersed sites, requiring regular travel to the Southeast from the primary Manchester base, on average three to four times per quarter.
• A critical priority was leading the adoption of the Business Central ERP system, eliminating the business’s reliance on spreadsheets and legacy methods across all sites.
• The role demanded a leader capable of reducing stock errors, improving OTIF performance, and establishing best practice processes and KPIs across all logistics functions.
• Given the business’s long-serving workforce and family-oriented culture, it was essential that the incoming person could drive meaningful change and gain buy-in from established staff without being dictatorial.
• The person would also be responsible for developing and uplifting the leadership capability of the current management layer, acting as a bridge between board-level leadership and operational teams.

The Business Challenge

The combination of a multi-site remit, a culturally sensitive environment, and a highly specific operational brief made this a limited search. The Manchester site had experienced rapid, significant growth, meaning the incoming person would be stepping into a function still finding its feet at a strategic level. Identifying candidates who had navigated similar periods of accelerated growth within manufacturing or logistics environments was therefore paramount.

The cultural dimension presented an additional layer of complexity. With many long-serving employees and a non-corporate, family-oriented ethos, the business required someone with the credibility to earn trust quickly and lead change sensitively.

Added to this, the salary range of £80,000–£95,000, while competitive, required careful positioning within the market to attract candidates with genuine strategic and multi-site credentials, rather than those operating purely at an operational management level.

The Solution and Result

In summary, the following process took place:

57 potential candidates identified following initial research undertaken

49 candidates engaged with

9 CV’s received

6 candidates interviewed by Collingwood

4 candidates interviewed by the client

One challenge that quickly become apparent was the fact that many leaders with logistics as an aspect to their role did so operating within a broad scope of responsibility – often either as Operations Directors or Supply Chain and Logistic Directors.

This was immediately flagged with the stakeholders from the client side, who agreed to include the latter function in the search.

Identifying and attracting individuals to this position was not a challenge. What was more difficult was getting the required blend of ‘softer skills’ experience required, together with experience of leading change through growth was.

Of the four recommended by Collingwood, all four received strong feedback from the Managing Director upon first meetings. This led to all four being progressed to a final stage with the full board of five in attendance.

Collingwood then managed the negotiation phase, managing to reduce the preferred candidates notice period from six months to four.

Looking for proven logistics and supply chain leadership? 

We partner with manufacturers across the UK to attract senior leaders who can improve efficiency, strengthen teams, and support sustainable growth. Start a conversation with our team today.