Head of Climate

City Plumbing; Milton Keynes; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Flexible working options

Life assurance

Mental Health support

Discounts at retailers

Job summary

City Plumbing seeks a Head of Climate to lead and scale the City Climate business unit with full P&L accountability, expanding our air conditioning, refrigeration, and heating proposition across commercial and residential sectors. The role is primarily hybrid with weekly visits to office, branches & suppliers.

You will drive a premier climate control and HVAC proposition, delivering sustainable solutions and exceptional customer service while building strong relationships with suppliers and

Qualifications

• Senior commercial, category management, or business development experience within a B2B trade merchant or climate control distributor.
• Track record of managing multi-million-pound product lines with full P&L accountability.
• Direct experience securing tier-one manufacturer agreements and launching trade customer propositions.

Responsibilities

• Lead creation and delivery of a Customer Proposition aligning with supplier strategy.
• Build relationships with Supply Base to secure best terms and availability.
• Create and lead a trading plan to deliver category budget, including budgets, forecasting, COGS and market share.
• Lead and develop the Commercial Team and support transformation initiatives.
• Review trading performance and take action per strategy.
• Deliver category pricing and range reviews to optimise performance.
• Negotiate supplier trading agreements to deliver Joint Business Plans.
• Manage internal stakeholders across sales, operations, supply, finance, marketing and digital.

Skills

Senior commercial leadership

Category management

Negotiation

Stakeholder management

Strategic planning

Job description

The Role:

As the Head of City Climate, you will lead and scale the City Climate business unit with full P&L accountability, driving the strategic expansion of our air conditioning, refrigeration, and heating proposition from start-up to market leader across commercial and residential sectors.

#BelongWithUs

Come and join us as the Head of Climate! You will help establish a premier climate control and HVAC proposition across our national branch network and City Commercial, delivering cutting-edge sustainable solutions and exceptional customer service.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the creation and delivery of a Customer Proposition that helps City Plumbing achieve it's objective and supplier strategy.


• Build excellent relationships with Supply Base to ensure that we have market leading availability and the best terms to improve business performance and drive market share.


• Create and lead a trading plan to at least deliver the category budget i.e. budgets / forecasting / COGS / trading accounts / market share.


• Being a role model within the Commercial Team, leading, managing and developing own team and providing support where necessary across the broader Commercial Team.


• Support the Commercial Director where needed, e.g. in the delivery of Transformation Initiatives, and Owning the delivery of agreed Commercial Change initiatives.


• Continually review trading performance, identifying areas of concern / opportunity and take appropriate action in line with the company/category strategy.


• Deliver category pricing and range reviews to optimise category performance.


• Own the negotiation of key supplier trading agreements to deliver Joint Business Plans that add value to our customers and maximise sales and profit opportunities


• Manage all internal stakeholder relationships for the categories including sales, operations, supply, finance, marketing and digital to ensure all cross-functional teams understand and are aligned with the category proposition.

This is primarily a hybrid-based role with visits to our office, branches & suppliers on a weekly basis.

You:

You will have deep technical knowledge of air conditioning systems, refrigeration equipment, heat pumps, and related installation materials, alongside a thorough understanding of F-Gas regulations, safety frameworks, and environmental compliance. You are a strategic thinker with outstanding stakeholder management and relationship-building skills across global suppliers and local trade contractors. A broad understanding of macroeconomic supply chain resilience and trade e-commerce development is highly beneficial.

Skills and competencies

• Proven senior commercial, category management, or business development experience within a B2B trade merchant or climate control distributor.


• Track record of managing multi-million-pound product lines with full P&L accountability.


• Direct experience securing tier-one manufacturer agreements and launching trade customer propositions.


• Expert negotiation and commercial acumen, with deep knowledge of margins, volume rebate structures, and CapEx strategies.


• Strong strategic planning and cross-functional, inspirational leadership capabilities - capable of steering complex workforces and presenting to executive board members.

Us:

From boilers to bathroom suites, tubing to towel rails and everything in between, City Plumbing has all the products our customers need to complete the job. And we have all you need to build a successful career! We're proud of our reputation for selling quality plumbing and heating products to both trade and retail customers and we're super excited about our future. We put our colleagues at the heart of all we do, giving them all the tools they need to be successful, happy and feel rewarded in their career with us.

Benefits Package and Cultural Environment:

• Bonus


• Discounts, savings and cash back at numerous retailers


• Life assurance


• Extended family policy including maternity, paternity, additional annual leave and more


• Mental Health First Aiders and Employee Assistance Programme, we look out for each other


• Complete induction and a company that lets you grow and encourages development


• Financial education and loans


• Flexible working options


• A business striving to create an environment of inclusion so everyone can be their true self


• And more!

#BelongWithUs

We're passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that celebrates and values diversity. Bring your whole self to work regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. We don't want you to 'fit' our culture, we want you to enrich it.