The First 100 Days: An Interview With Paul Whyte, Managing Director, Naylor
Paul Whyte joined us as Managing Director in September this year. As the year comes to an end, we spoke with him about his experience of Naylor Concrete to date, his first 100 days in the business and his aspirations for its future.
Paul, before we talk to you about Naylor Concrete, please could you tell us a little about yourself and your professional background?
My background is in the construction industry and specifically in the concrete civils sector for which I have worked for more than 30 years. My first job was as a sales admin, and I have worked my way up to roles including National Sales Manager and Commercial Director. I have experience of working for both manufacturing and distributor businesses, and have worked for companies including Hanson, CPM, Marshalls Civils & Drainage and most recently for civils distributor, Civils & Lintels where I was employed as a Regional Director.
What were your impressions of Naylor Concrete when you first joined the business?
My first impressions were that Naylor Concrete is a strong lintels business, which has a strong history and a great reputation in the industry. The business also benefits from having a dedicated team, which has many years of experience and the potential to achieve so much more as the business develops.
What were your priorities during your first 100 days?
My key priorities were to understand the current business model, and to develop a new five-year growth strategy, which will help create new revenue streams and maximise profit from existing activities. To achieve this, earning the trust and respect of the team was an important first step for me as, I believe, it lays the foundations for us all to be aligned in delivering the strategies.
What have been your key achievements during this period?
For me the team has delivered three key achievements which will lay the foundations for the next stage of Naylor Concrete’s development: we’ve developed a structured, five-year growth strategy for the business which will enable us to deliver our strategic objectives and track our progress, we’re working collaboratively as a team, and we’ve improved our customer service offering. Coming from one of Naylor Concrete’s distributor customers, I was able to give our team an in-depth view of the customer experience and we have made some key changes to our servicing offering, such as shortening lead times to five to seven days, to improve the service we provide.
So, what are your aspirations for the next 12 months?
We are focussed on two core areas. Firstly, the development of new infrastructure at our Barugh Green site which will enable us to develop new revenue streams for the business. This will involve investment in new site facilities and manufacturing equipment. We are also keen to ensure we are known as a business which manufactures and supplies a wide range of concrete products for different markets and applications, and to dispel the view that we’re just a concrete lintels business.
Finally, what do the next 100 days look like?
I think I can sum that up in a sentence. We want to engage, empower, and evolve across all levels of our business.