We are a long-established premium fitted furniture manufacturer hiring a Factory Manager for our Watford-area factory.
We've been making bespoke fitted furniture for over 20 years across multiple UK showrooms, all feeding one factory. You'll be running a well-tooled floor (paint line, CNC, in-house glass and sliding doors), with an experienced deputy already in place, a dedicated admin partner at Head Office to handle paperwork, and full authority over hiring, training and how the team is shaped.
What you'll be doing
- Build and own the weekly factory rota.
- Run a 16-person multi-station floor — saws, edgebander, two CNCs, paint line, glass, sliding doors, drawer boxes — with a deputy in place.
- Run in-house drivers and the van fleet — right job on the right van the night before.
- Quality sign-off before anything leaves the factory.
- Own Health & Safety on site
- Hire, train, develop, performance manage.
- Spot bottlenecks, talk daily to CAD, installs and fitters.
What you'll bring
- At least 5 years managing a factory floor at a wardrobe, kitchen, cabinet or joinery business. Hard requirement — please don't apply without it.
- Confidence running a multi-station woodworking floor. You don't have to operate every machine but you have to spot when something's wrong.
- People management of a multinational team. Calm with a team where English is a not always a first language.
- Logistics confidence — you've planned a daily van schedule before, or you'll pick it up fast.
- Comfortable with basic web apps and spreadsheets — we build our own production tools.
- Full UK driving licence.
Hours are Monday to Friday 7am - 4pm with the occasional Saturday when needed.
Pay: From £50,000.00 per year
Application question(s):
- In 100 words or fewer: tell us about a time a machine went down mid-shift or a key person was suddenly off — what did you do?
- How many direct reports have you managed at one time, and what was the language mix?
- Do you have at least 5 years managing a wood / cabinet / joinery factory floor? (Hard requirement.)
Work Location: In person
