Group Finance Director

The successful candidate will be required to travel regularly across a UK network of manufacturing sites. The role would therefore suit candidates based between the North West, Midlands and South East
, including Greater Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford, Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Northampton, Milton Keynes and Oxford
. Considerable autonomy and flexibility are offered, with travel planned around business requirements.

Hawthorn One has been exclusively retained to appoint a Group Finance Director for a fast-growing, privately owned multi-site manufacturing group. The group has grown through a combination of organic development and acquisition and has significant long-term growth ambitions, to be achieved through continued organic growth, operational improvement and further acquisition. It is entrepreneurial, acquisitive and operationally focused, a business that works hard, respects its people, and the senior team is lean, dynamic and genuinely hands‑on.

The group is at an important stage of its development; hence the finance leader it needs has to operate effectively in the business it is today, yet also have the ability to build the financial infrastructure, controls, systems and capability for a significantly larger group.

This is the most senior finance position within the Group, offering the successful candidate the opportunity to grow alongside the business. Working closely with the Group's leadership team, you'll play a central role in shaping its financial infrastructure, improving operational performance and supporting its next phase of growth. With ambitious expansion plans, the successful candidate could soon be leading the finance function of a significantly larger manufacturing group.

Reporting to the Group's senior leadership and joining the executive leadership team, you'll take overall responsibility for finance across the multi-site manufacturing group, working closely with the individual business leaders and their teams. This is not a corporate or reporting-focused Finance Director job. You'll need to be comfortable working at Board level, managing banking relationships and supporting acquisitions, but equally happy spending time on manufacturing sites, understanding operational performance and working alongside management teams to improve profitability, efficiency and cash generation.

A significant part of the position will involve strengthening financial controls, reporting and governance across the Group. You’ll work with the local finance teams across the group to establish consistent reporting, improve financial visibility and ensure that information is used to make better commercial and operational decisions. Cash and working capital management will be another important responsibility, alongside overseeing Group budgets, forecasts, funding arrangements and relationships with lenders.

You'll also play a key role in future acquisitions, from financial evaluation and due diligence through to integrating new businesses into the Group's reporting, processes and financial controls.

• You’ll hold a recognised accountancy qualification (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) with significant senior finance leadership experience within a manufacturing environment and have operated at Group Finance Director or Finance Director level.
• You must be comfortable operating strategically whilst remaining hands‑on, spending meaningful time within the manufacturing sites, building relationships with operational teams, challenging performance and turning financial information into practical improvements.
• You'll need to be adaptable and…