UK manufacturers appoint interim managers to drive growth

In another sign of the revival of the UK manufacturing industry, demand is rapidly increasing for interim managers to help manufacturers build on recent growth, says Interim Partners, a leading provider of interim managers.

Interim executives are managers or other senior executives, usually just below board-level, who are recruited on a short term basis.

According to the Ipsos MORI research,* daily rates for interim managers in manufacturing reached £845 per day in the last quarter of 2010, up 13% compared with the same time last year. Manufacturing interims commanded the highest daily rate of all private sector assignments, and daily rates for interims appointed at director level were up to £1,750.

In the last quarter, manufacturing accounted for 13% of all private sector assignments, compared to 9 per cent in Q1 2010, making the manufacturing industry the second largest employer of interim managers after banking and finance. Interim Partners has appointed 26% more interim managers in the manufacturing industry in the last six months than in the previous six months.

Tom Legard, Head of the Manufacturing Practice at Interim Partners, said: “With manufacturing expanding at its highest rate in 19 years, manufacturers are now more than ready to appoint interims to tackle particular short-term challenges because they are confident of getting an excellent return on their investment.”**

“In some cases, using an interim is crucial to expansion projects – for example, we have seen strong demand for interims to put European-standard quality and safety control systems in place where a UK manufacturer is expanding capacity by outsourcing the production of component parts to factories in China and South East Asia. Often that expertise is not available locally.”

“Interims also offer a valuable pair of fresh eyes to review and streamline management reporting systems so that companies are in the best possible position to respond quickly to new opportunities in the market.”

Tom Legard adds that although manufacturers are confident of future growth, they are also having to combat the impact of inflation on their profit margins from rising commodity prices and the continuing tight credit market.

He explains: “This is encouraging them to focus on ensuring that their operations are as tight as possible, and we have placed several interims with experience of Lean manufacturing*** to go in and review companies’ procurement, production and supply chain systems.”

• Research by Ipsos MORI for the Interim Management Association According to the CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index (February 2011) * Lean manufacturing is a process pioneered by Toyota that seeks to reduce waste and simplify service delivery