Operations Director

A member of global packaging and print group Aldus, API Foilmakers is a European manufacturer of hot stamping foils and cold stamping foils (metallic and pigment) based in the UK, founded in London in 1783 and has been making print media, products and packaging for over 200 years.

Headquartered in Livingston, Scotland, the business is a UK manufacturer with wholly owned sales, service, stock and distribution companies strategically placed across Europe and an Export department with global reach. It also works world-wide with selected distribution partners.

API serves a number of luxury and technical markets including luxury wines and spirits, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, vehicle licensing, greetings cards and textiles, producing world leading stamping foil products.

With plans for organic and immediate acquisitive growth, it is an exciting time for the organisation, which is 2-3 years into a turnaround.

At this point, we are seeking to appoint a new Operations Director to the business to lead overall production operations and teams across Manufacturing, Engineering, R&D (Technical), Supply Chain and HR.

The individual will lead a total team of around 90 FTE and focus on driving a continuous improvement environment which develops through effective training and development of people and the implementation of lean manufacturing practices.

Broadly, key duties will include:

• Working with the leadership team to deliver an operational strategy to enable the business to meet growth and commercial objectives
• Leading the development of new Continuous Improvement and Lean manufacturing initiatives and their delivery
• Operational integration of newly acquired business
• Ownership and accountability for site Health, Safety & Environmental compliance and adherence
• Providing leadership to the Operations team, continually developing new skills, knowledge and motivation to respond in a fast paced, ever-changing environment
• Overall responsibility for associated CAPEX projects and their delivery
• The management of key supplier relationships along with Supply Chain to drive business benefit

The candidate will be an experienced Operations/Site Leader, ideally with experience of operating in a medium sized manufacturing business. It is essential the preferred candidate has experience of driving continual improvement projects and can outline the business benefits from doing so.

They will have experience of delivering training and development for multi-functional teams which positively impact business, in a fast paced and margin sensitive organisation.

Given the immediate acquisition plans, it would be advantageous if the successful candidate has been involved in handled operational integration activity.

Finally, we require a good relationship builder who can quickly establish rapport with the Manging Director and wider leadership team in this growing / changing business.