General Manager
Smurfit Kappa

Welcome to Smurfit Kappa Northampton

Andy Burrows – Integrated Divisional Director

If you are taking the trouble to read this introduction, you will undoubtedly be interested in our General Manager vacancy

This is an important role for us and we aim to provide you with as much information as possible to help you decide whether this is the right role of you.

Northampton is one of our largest manufacturing sites in the UK Corrugated Division. Its mission is “To build a successful and sustainable future through creative, collaborative, and authentic partnerships. We will nurture an open-minded culture to drive standards, create value and demonstrate we understand our customer’s needs”

Across the UK Integrated Division we have 8 sites each of whom support a wide customer portfolio. Our General Managers operate a decentralised structure with local management responsibilities across operations, sales, finance and HR. However, they are also are encouraged to work together to share best practice and meet on a regular basis to discuss operational plans and strategic priorities including:

At Northampton, we have a strong and dedicated workforce of C160 colleagues with an average tenure of 13 years who work tirelessly to provide high quality packaging solutions for our many customers. The manufacturing facility which is located in the heart of Northampton is 56665 m² and has excellent road links close to the M1, A14 and M6

From this site we service 86 customers, including Local, National, Multi-National, Pan European and Global accounts. Predominantly our customers are FMCG, in sectors including Soft Drinks, Snack Foods, Breweries, Breakfast cereals, Bread & pastries and many others. We produce C1500 skews, manufactured across 5 conversion machines.

With so many of our customers working within the food and beverage industries we have a number of accreditations to demonstrate our commitment to quality, environment and people including FSC, PEFC, BRC, ISO 14001, ISO 9001 and SMETA 

On site we encourage open communication across all divisions and in the near future we will be embarking upon an exciting new project which brings culture and production closer together, exploring operational efficiencies, change management, health and safety, zero loss, and problem solving; all driven through a collaborative bottom-up approach.

The site has an active employee forum who meet regularly to discuss key priorities, changes and initiatives such as employee events and wellbeing activities, and we work in partnership with our on-site union and health and safety representatives to ensure our processes are applied consistently and fairly. The site is proud to work closely with the local community and we actively engage with local charities through donations, fundraising and volunteering events

We have recently refurbished our canteen which many of our colleagues use on a daily basis, with fish and chips and roast days proving to be firm favourites!

If you would like to work for a friendly but performance driven culture with an emphasis on looking after one another and improving standards across the business, and you feel you have the skills and background to continue driving the Northampton team to future success, we would welcome your application