General Manager

General Manager

About the Opportunity

Fynde has partnered with a globally established leader in premium beauty packaging to appoint a commercially driven and entrepreneurial General Manager to lead the company's next phase of international growth.

With a strong reputation for innovation, quality and customer partnership, our client supplies some of the world's leading beauty and personal care brands across multiple international markets. As part of its ambitious global expansion strategy, the business is making a significant investment in the Middle East through the launch of a new manufacturing operation in the Dubai.

This is a rare opportunity to build and lead a business from the ground up, combining strategic leadership with a highly hands-on approach. The successful individual will play a pivotal role in establishing the facility, recruiting a high-performing leadership team, developing customer relationships and creating a scalable operation capable of supporting long-term regional growth.

This position would suit an ambitious leader who enjoys building businesses, thrives in fast-paced entrepreneurial environments and is passionate about delivering sustainable commercial success.

The Opportunity

Reporting into the executive leadership team, the General Manager will take full ownership of the Dubai operation, with responsibility for establishing and growing a world-class manufacturing business.

The role will encompass every aspect of the operation, including commercial development, manufacturing, automation, operations, supply chain, finance, customer relationships, people leadership and overall business performance.

This is not a role for someone who prefers managing from behind a desk. The successful candidate will be expected to lead from the front, solving problems, making decisions quickly and building a high-performance culture across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

Business Leadership

• Lead the successful launch and ongoing development of the new Dubai manufacturing operation.
• Develop and execute the long-term business strategy in line with global objectives.
• Build a profitable, scalable and sustainable operation capable of supporting significant regional growth.
• Act as the senior leader for the business, creating a culture focused on accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Establish robust operational processes and governance across all functions.

Commercial Growth

• Drive profitable revenue growth across the Middle East and surrounding regions.
• Develop and execute the commercial strategy, identifying new markets, customers and growth opportunities.
• Build long-term strategic partnerships with leading beauty and personal care brands.
• Lead major commercial negotiations and customer relationships.
• Work closely with global teams to maximise opportunities across international accounts.

Manufacturing & Operations

• Oversee the commissioning and successful launch of the new manufacturing facility.
• Ensure production, quality, engineering and supply chain functions operate efficiently.
• Drive operational excellence across manufacturing performance, productivity and customer service.
• Develop lean manufacturing principles and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Ensure all health, safety and quality standards are consistently achieved.

Automation & Process Improvement

• Lead the implementation of automation technologies across the facility.
• Identify opportunities to improve manufacturing efficiency, productivity and cost performance.
• Champion operational innovation and digital transformation.
• Work closely with engineering teams to future-proof the manufacturing operation.

Leadership & Team Development

• Recruit, develop and retain a high-performing leadership team across commercial, operations, engineering, finance and support functions.
• Inspire, mentor and develop future leaders within the organisation.
• Foster a collaborative, high-performance culture built around accountability and continuous development.
• Build organisational capability to support future expansion.

Financial Management

• Take full ownership of the site's financial performance.
• Manage P&L, budgets, forecasting and overall business profitability.
• Deliver sustainable top-line growth whilst maintaining strong margin performance.
• Identify opportunities for cost optimisation and operational efficiencies.
• Report performance against agreed KPIs to the executive leadership team.

Customer Excellence

• Ensure exceptional customer service standards across all areas of the business.
• Develop trusted relationships with strategic customers.
• Act as the executive point of contact for key client partnerships.
• Ensure the business consistently delivers against customer expectations for quality, delivery and innovation.

Candidate Profile

The successful candidate will be an experienced General Manager, Managing Director, Site Director or Business Unit Leader with a proven track record of leading manufacturing businesses through periods of growth and transformation.

You will combine strong commercial acumen with operational excellence and possess the leadership capability to build and scale high-performing organisations.

Experience Required

• Significant leadership experience within manufacturing.
• Previous responsibility for full business operations including commercial, operations and finance.
• Proven experience managing full P&L accountability.
• Demonstrated success delivering profitable top-line growth.
• Experience establishing or significantly expanding manufacturing operations would be highly advantageous.
• Strong understanding of lean manufacturing, operational excellence and continuous improvement.
• Experience implementing automation or advanced manufacturing technologies.
• Proven success building and developing high-performing teams.
• Strong background leading cross-functional organisations.
• Experience working within international or multinational businesses.
• Beauty, cosmetics, personal care, packaging or adjacent manufacturing sector experience would be advantageous.

Personal Attributes

• Entrepreneurial mindset.
• Hands-on leader who enjoys building businesses.
• Commercially astute with strong strategic thinking.
• Highly driven and results focused.
• Exceptional people leadership skills.
• Confident decision-maker.
• Excellent communicator with strong stakeholder management capability.
• Resilient and adaptable within fast-paced environments.
• Passionate about developing people and creating winning cultures.
• Comfortable balancing strategic planning with day-to-day operational involvement.

Why Join

This is an opportunity to play a defining role in the expansion of a globally recognised organisation entering one of the world's fastest-growing markets.

The successful individual will have the autonomy to build an operation from the ground up, recruit and develop a best-in-class team, shape the regional strategy and leave a lasting legacy within an ambitious international business.

If you are an entrepreneurial manufacturing leader looking for your next challenge and are excited by the opportunity to build something exceptional, we'd love to hear from you.