What is your job role and what does it involve?
I’m Regional Operations Director for SG Contracts Division, looking after Minster Insulation, Jewson Civils Frazer and Utilities in the South East. I work with a diverse group of customers, product types and market sectors. Day to day, I’m responsible for the health & safety of the branch teams, the branch presentation and standards, the logistical operations, such as getting vehicles out on time and maximising the time spent on the road. I work closely with the Regional Logistics Manager to ensure we maximise the use of our fleet across the region. I also work with the Regional Inventory Manager to make sure we invest in the right stock and quantities, and with the commercial teams to reduce the old and overstocked products. I also spend a lot of time engaging with the commercial teams across all brands to ensure we’re offering best in customer service. In general, I work with various people from various functions across the business on different projects.
What do you enjoy about your job?
The variety of work, no one day is the same as the next. Anything can hit you and about 75% of each day is reacting to what comes through on a daily basis. The most enjoyable part of the job is working with people and developing the team in the branches. I enjoy identifying talent with the managers and developing team members in the branch who can become the Operations Managers and Supervisors of tomorrow.
What challenges do you face?
Managing multiple relationships across different functions and brands. Where I don’t have direct line management responsibility for an individual or team. I have to manage through influence and build relationships across the business so we can collectively achieve the desired outcome.
What has your career journey with Minster been like so far?
I’ve been with the business for 20 years. I started as a Sales Executive with Graham, then worked as Branch Manager for Jewson, Public Sector Sales Manager, then Area Director for Jewson as well. I spent 3 years working as a Business Development Director at the head office in Binley, and I’ve been in this role since July 2019. It’s been quite a varied career, some roles I sought out, some came from succession planning, or during restructures which opens up new doors. For this role, I wanted to get back into operations in the South East and the opportunity came up at the right time.
Do you have any advice for someone thinking about joining Minster?
I’m currently recruiting at the moment so the biggest thing to me is to be open-minded to change. It’s a constantly changing environment in The STARK Group. If I look back at my career, you can easily stay put in one role or position for a long time, which is fine for some people, but there is always opportunity to change and try new things, work for new brands and different functions. There are huge opportunities at STARK. I couldn’t have achieved a variety of skills and experience without moving around within the group over the past 20 years.