Careers at Minster

What is your job role and what does it involve?

Key Accounts Sales Manager. I manage the key accounts team and key account customers for the Hayes, Barking, Croydon & White City branches.
 

What do you enjoy about your job?

I mostly enjoy building relationships with our key customers, branches and sites. Every day is different and I am lucky enough to have a brilliant team around me.
 

What challenges do you face?

There is always going to be challenges when working with so many different branches and sites – the key to overcome any issues is always communication.
 

What has your career journey with Minster been like so far? 

My journey with Minster has been really enjoyable and rewarding. Within 2 years I have been able to work my way from Sales Specialist to Key Account Sales Manager.

Do you have any advice for someone thinking about joining Minster?

Do it! I would recommend working for Minster to anyone. Hard work and dedication is rewarded.

What is your job role and what does it involve?  

Business Manager, it is working commercially to ensure we are winning as much of the correct business as possible. Working closely with colleagues and most importantly our customers to help secure great projects together. We want to help as many customers as we can.
 

What do you enjoy about your job?

What I enjoy most is the relationships I have built since being part of Minster, I have developed some great relationships with colleagues who I know will last a long time, not only that but also the relationships I have built with customers. Knowing you can pick up the phone anytime. With also the gentle ribbing you can get as well.
 

What challenges do you face?

I believe the biggest challenges we have faced is the growth of our business, Liverpool branch has grown substantially over the last 2 years it has been open, which has meant we are sometimes stretched with our resources, however, the business has seen this and invested, which is great at a time when many other companies are not. Just recently we have had an extra wagon added to our fleet.
 

What has your career journey with Minster been like so far?

I started off as sales manager in Winsford, before continuing as a sales manager in Liverpool, then being promoted to Business Manager Liverpool.
 

Do you have any advice for someone thinking about joining Minster?

My advice would be - do not hesitate! It is a great business to be part of and we are only improving.

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.

What is your job role and what does it involve?

I’m the Branch Sales Manager for our new Minster Oldham branch. As the name suggests, I look after the sales & manage the sales team here working alongside the operations team.
 

What do you enjoy about your job?

I love everything about the job. No 2 days are the same. You are constantly kept busy and there is always something to be doing. I have loved building this branch up from a standing start. It is rare in your career you get the opportunity to open up a new branch with no trading history. We get the opportunity to establish our reputation in the market, and so having that daily customer service is what drives us.
 

What challenges do you face?

Our challenge has been the baptism of fire the market is in at the minute. With many suppliers putting us on allocation and having extended lead times the challenge was to ensure that our customers feel as little disruption as possible. We have stayed close to our suppliers from the get-go and even closer to our customers. The feedback so far from our customers has been very positive. 
 

What has your career journey with Minster been like so far?

I joined the business in 2016 as a business development consultant for Glassolutions. That was promoting our online sales tool that was in its inception (myglassolutions) we grew this from £26K initial sales up to over 1.5 million. From there I was promoted to Area Sales Manager for our biggest branch in the North. After four years as a sales manager, I wanted to break into people management with the end goal of running my own branch and the Minster opportunity fit the bill perfectly. I wasn’t proactively looking in all honesty, an email came round with internal jobs that were available within the many brands of The STARK Group and the Minster one was perfect. Two interviews later and here we are. 
 

Do you have any advice for someone thinking about joining Minster?

I had no industry knowledge prior to joining and my top salesman had no industry knowledge either so don’t be intimidated about product knowledge. Throw yourself into everything, ask as many questions as possible, keep enthusiastic, proactive and solution orientated in your approach and you will do well at Minster. The support is there from the experienced team you will have around you.