PZ Cussons | Better Placed

bpesearch gave great counsel from the outset. From the initial briefing stage, they were naturally curious, asking the right questions and getting underneath the skin of our business in a way which only comes when you are an expert in your field and truly consultative. They made the effort to engage and get a proper sense of what we are trying to do and why, behaving as a true partner. I felt confident that bpesearch strived to understand the culture and the journey that we are on. As a result, we were presented with a very strong shortlist and made an appointment that we are delighted with.

Our brief

PZ Cussons is FTSE 250 consumer products group and innovator of brands including Imperial Leather, Carex, Original Source, Charles Worthington, Fudge & St Tropez. Successful people at PZ Cussons apply themselves, every day. They work with limited resource; find ways to solve problems and move at pace. They work well together, but take full accountability for their P&L and play to win. It’s an intense, high tempo, high exposure environment with no room to hide behind people or processes.

A fantastic office near Manchester Airport is home to the UK&I as well as the European and Global Headquarters. The UK&I is a critical cash generator and barometer of success for the group. This undoubtedly provides the team with a fantastic opportunity to shine and develop their careers, but naturally comes with a pressure to perform. All eyes are on the leadership team and they need to thrive in, and cope with, the demands and intensity of the environment. As a long term talent partner to the business, we were given the opportunity to find a Sales Director for the UK&I.

Our approach

Having previously successfully appointed Lee Doherty as Sales Director, we knew the landscape well and the challenges we all faced in trying to identify another quality Sales Director. It is an outstanding role in FMCG in the north west of the country, but the office location and unique culture of the business significantly narrow the available candidate pool. As an added complexity, we needed to operate under strict NDA for the first 4 weeks until Lee’s promotion was announced.

As comprehensive as the previous search had been, this was a different brief, reporting into a new hiring manager with equally high expectations. We needed to find someone with blue chip FMCG training, strong people management credentials, and a track record of success across multiple retail channels. Interpersonally, we needed to identify a sharp commercial operator capable of driving short term trading performance whilst also building sustainable value growth through long term initiatives.

Our mapping and research work was extremely thorough and our approaches very targeted. We engaged with some exceptional candidates, maintained the assignment confidentiality and presented a very clear and balanced perspective on the opportunity and business environment. Some of the very best on paper were simply not well matched to the PZ Cussons culture and we had to decline a number of very well qualified candidates to reach our shortlist.

The outcome

Within just four weeks we delivered a shortlist of five candidates and our recommendations were accepted in full with two progressing to 2^nd stage. The successful candidate was interviewed by the European MD and given very resounding thumbs up before an offer was made and accepted without hesitation.