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General Manager
Smurfit Westrock

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The Role - Main

The Role

Job Description

Job Title: General Manager
Division: Trade & Speciality
Location: Diss
Reporting to: Divisional Director

Immediate Reports: Site Leadership team: Including but not exclusively; Financial Controller and Supply Chain Director, Sales Director, Operations Director, and Health & Safety Manager.

Job Summary

Smurfit Westrock Diss is an Integrated Corrugated manufacturing business, producing a large range of corrugated packaging and heavy-duty sheet board, supplying predominantly to the Trade sector across the UK. The General Manager oversees all aspects of the running of the business, including developing and implementing a strategic plan to further expand the business. With full ‘P&L responsibility the General Manager sets the overall direction to take the business to the next level of profitability.

Main Duties & Responsibilities

  • Strategy – Interpret, define, and deliver strategic plans in conjunction with the Divisional Director and his staff (within the context of the wider business network).
  • Financial – In conjunction with the Financial Controller, ensure good legal and fiducial stewardship of the business, also holding responsibility for the mid and long-term profitability of the site, requiring management of revenue budgets, asset management and any capital expenditure.
  • Customer / Sales / Commercial– Ensure profitable work is brought into the business in line with the site strategy and that existing business is serviced well to ensure it is retained, wherever possible growing margin during its contractual tenure. Customer service and relationships are very important to Smurfit Westrock and the annual customer survey should be used as a gauge of business success amongst all the other KPI’s.
  • Health & Safety – Ensure the site goes beyond its legal obligations and benchmarks internally and externally to ensure the site drives towards a zero-harm culture harnessing all of its colleagues’ inputs in the process.
  • People – First of all ensure the site operates within legal employment parameters, then follows Group and country SKG Policies. Going beyond that, develop a culture that allows colleagues to perform to the best of their capabilities, addressing barriers to change along the journey – with a focus on developing talent throughout.      
  • Compliance – Oversee completion of all site auditing including Health Safety and Environmental, Finance, IT, and People Issues. Sign off financial reports.

Note: Your defined role should not limit your duties, and from time to time the Company may require you to undertake any other duties within your capability which may include appropriate secondments.

Regular Contacts

  • Internal: This role requires coordination, consultation, and cooperation at all levels of the organisation from contract labour through to senior leadership.    
  • External: Customers, suppliers, union representatives, government bodies (i.e. HSE and other regulatory authorities) and the general public occasionally.       

Other Requirements

  • Flexibility to travel as needed for site visits, Divisional, Country and Group meetings and appropriate training.
  • Valid driver’s license is very much desired but not essential.
  • Essentially this is seen as a site-based role which offers limited flexibility for home working.

Health and Safety

Health and Safety and creating a good H+S culture, is an integral part of all Smurfit Westrock activities and all colleagues are expected to play their part in creating a safe working environment; adhering to all SKG policies within their area of work and conducting all their work in a safe manner.

It is vital that all colleagues recognise and acknowledge they have responsibility for their own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by their acts or omissions

All colleagues with management responsibility are responsible for ensuring full implementation of all SKG policies/arrangements within their area of control and full compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (amended 2003) and all other UK/European health, safety and environmental legislation

Core Values

Smurfit Westrock is dedicated to conducting business in accordance with the highest ethical standards and all colleagues are required to share and demonstrate our core values of:

  • Health & Safety
  • Loyalty
  • Integrity and
  • Trust

In addition, all employees should be aware of our high-level vision statement which is to “Create Protect and Care”.

Person Specification

 

Essential

Desirable

Knowledge & Skills (what you need to know and be able to do)

Able to think strategically and look at the bigger picture.

Has a compliance mindset.

Understands what good customer service and product quality is and appreciates why it’s necessary.

Has Financial & Commercial awareness.

Comes from a Zero harm understanding and culture.

Absorbs Complex material quickly.

Self-Aware / emotionally intelligent.

Supply chain & capacity planning.

Risk analysis.

An appreciation of business law including employment law.

An appreciation of bottleneck theory and modern manufacturing methods and trends.

Experience (what you must have done in the past)

Worked within a company that manufactures product, ideally in a fast-moving packaging or FMCG environment (a strong supply chain background may be considered but is not ideal).

Managed complex / multi-disciplinary teams.

Must be a strong Leader and a good administrator.

 

Lean manufacturing understanding.

Project management experience.

Worked within a unionised environment.

 

Qualifications (required to perform the role)

 

Degree educated, or an alternative qualification at Level 5 or above.

Attitudes (ways of thinking & acting that will enable success in the role)

Target Driven.

Enthusiastic with a strong work ethic.

Adopts a coaching mindset.

Collaborative.

Prepared to Lead from the front when the need arises.

Resilient.

Tenacious.

 

Entrepreneurial