BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE
Sales | New Business | Market Development
Who Are We?
Phoenox Textiles Ltd is a long-established British manufacturer of design-led flooring textiles for the home and the company behind brands including Hug Rug, Made North, Howler & Scratch and Origin, alongside a significant private-label and own-brand manufacturing business.
Founded in 1954 and based in Clayton West, Huddersfield, we remain proudly family owned, with much of our product designed, developed and manufactured here in Yorkshire.
We are entering an exciting period of growth. With an expanding portfolio of brands, licensed collaborations, UK manufacturing capabilities and private-label opportunities, we are looking for an ambitious Business Development Executive to help us find the next generation of customers, markets and opportunities.
This is not simply an account-management role.
We want someone who enjoys opening doors.
Someone who is commercially hungry, curious about where the next opportunity might come from and confident enough to pick up the phone, start conversations and turn prospects into customers.
The Opportunity
Your primary responsibility will be new business development.
You will actively research and identify new customers, sectors and routes to market across the UK and potentially internationally.
That could mean identifying a retailer we don't currently supply, exploring an entirely new sector for one of our brands, finding opportunities for private-label manufacturing or spotting a market for a product or collaboration that we haven't previously considered.
We don't want this role restricted by a list of existing customers.
We want you looking for the customers we don't have yet.
You will take opportunities from initial research and prospecting through qualification, development and ultimately to first order.
Where a major opportunity would benefit from senior or face-to-face involvement, you will work alongside our wider sales team to develop it.
You will also manage a smaller portfolio of existing customers, giving you responsibility for both winning new business and developing existing revenue.
Key Responsibilities
New Business & Market Development
- Proactively identify new customers, markets, sectors and routes to market.
- Research retailers, wholesalers, distributors, buying groups, online businesses and other potential commercial partners.
- Identify relevant buyers, owners and key decision-makers.
- Build and maintain a strong pipeline of qualified prospects.
- Make proactive contact through telephone, email, LinkedIn, exhibitions and other appropriate channels.
- Present Phoenox, our brands, products, manufacturing capabilities and private-label offering professionally.
- Develop prospects from first contact through to commercial opportunity and first order.
- Explore opportunities outside our traditional customer base.
- Identify potential new sectors for our products and manufacturing capabilities.
- Follow up consistently and professionally.
- Handle objections confidently and be comfortable asking for the business.
- Maintain accurate CRM records and clear next actions for every meaningful opportunity.
Private Label & Manufacturing Opportunities
A major part of our future growth is our ability to design, develop and manufacture products for other businesses.
You will actively seek opportunities with retailers, brands, wholesalers and other organisations looking for:
- Private-label and own-brand product development.
- UK manufacturing.
- Exclusive product ranges.
- Bespoke collections.
- Collaborative product opportunities.
- Sustainable and British-made product solutions.
You should be comfortable opening conversations with businesses we have never dealt with before and exploring how our capabilities could work for them.
Existing Account Development
Alongside new business, you will manage a smaller portfolio of existing customers.
You will:
- Build strong relationships with buyers and key contacts.
- Identify opportunities to increase customer spend.
- Introduce new products, brands and categories.
- Cross-sell across our wider portfolio.
- Look for gaps within existing customer ranges.
- Maintain excellent service while always keeping a commercial focus.
Working With the Wider Sales Team
You won't be working in isolation.
You will work closely with our National Account Managers, marketing, product development and senior management teams.
When you identify a significant opportunity, you will bring in the right people to help convert it.
This may include arranging qualified meetings, customer presentations, product development sessions or face-to-face appointments.
Your job is to create momentum and opportunity.
Trade Shows & Networking
Phoenox attends major trade shows, exhibitions and customer events throughout the year.
You will have the opportunity to attend these events, meet prospective customers and develop new relationships.
We don't see exhibitions as simply standing on a stand and waiting for customers.
You will be expected to actively network, identify prospects, create leads and , importantly , follow them up afterwards.
Who Are We Looking For?
We are looking for attitude, commercial instinct and ambition as much as experience.
You may already work in business development, sales, telesales or account management. Alternatively, you may be earlier in your career but have the confidence and determination to succeed in a commercially driven environment.
You should be someone who:
- Gets satisfaction from winning new business.
- Is naturally curious about companies, markets and opportunities.
- Is confident approaching people you have never spoken to before.
- Isn't afraid of picking up the phone.
- Can communicate professionally with buyers and senior decision-makers.
- Understands that successful business development requires persistence.
- Can handle rejection without losing momentum.
- Spots commercial opportunities and acts on them.
- Is organised and follows opportunities through properly.
- Enjoys working towards targets.
- Takes ownership rather than waiting to be told what to do.
- Wants to build a career in sales and business development.
Experience within homewares, interiors, flooring, textiles, retail or manufacturing would be useful, but commercial drive and the desire to succeed are more important.
What Success Looks Like
This role has a very clear purpose:
Create new opportunities and turn them into profitable business.
The process is simple:
Research → Prospect → Connect → Qualify → Develop → Win → Grow
Success will be measured through:
- New customers opened.
- New business revenue generated.
- Quality and value of the prospect pipeline.
- New markets and sectors developed.
- Private-label and manufacturing opportunities created.
- Growth within your existing customer portfolio.
- Consistent prospecting and follow-up activity.
You will have clear targets, but you will also have the freedom to explore opportunities and bring new ideas to the business.
Commission will reward strong commercial performance and successful new business generation.
Why Join Phoenox?
Phoenox is changing and growing.
We combine more than 70 years of British manufacturing heritage with ambitious plans for the future.
We have established brands, UK manufacturing, imported collections, private-label capabilities, licensed collaborations and an increasingly diverse customer base.
For the right person, that creates an enormous amount to sell.
This is an opportunity to join a business where you can genuinely make an impact rather than simply inherit a list of accounts.
You'll have the opportunity to:
- Build new markets and customer sectors.
- Work with established home and lifestyle brands.
- Develop major retail and private-label opportunities.
- Represent British-designed and manufactured products.
- Attend major trade shows and exhibitions.
- Work alongside an experienced commercial and product team.
- Develop your career as the business grows.
- Be recognised and rewarded for the new business you create.
Most importantly, we want someone who wants to win.
If you see a company we should be supplying, we want you to contact them.
If you see a market we should be operating in, we want you to explore it.
If you see an opportunity we haven't spotted, we want you to bring it to us.
Hours & Benefits
Monday to Friday – 9.00am to 5.00pm
- 35 days' holiday, including Bank Holidays.
- Competitive salary dependent on experience.
- Commission linked directly to new business and sales performance.
- On-site parking.
- Opportunities to attend UK and international trade shows and exhibitions.
- Career development and progression opportunities.
- Exposure to major retailers, brands and commercial partners.
- Friendly, entrepreneurial and fast-moving family-business environment.
- Genuine opportunity to influence the future growth of the company.
Interested?
If you're commercially hungry, confident approaching new people and excited by the challenge of finding business that isn't already sitting in front of you, we'd like to hear from you.
Don't just tell us you've worked in sales. Tell us what you've won, what you've built and where you think you could take us next.
Pay: From £35,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Free parking
Work Location: In person
