Growth creates opportunity. We have a great track record, doubling in size every five years over the last two decades. To maintain our momentum, we need to attract top quality people who can shape and implement strategies across national boundaries and cultures. Beyond the EGP, the opportunities are many and varied. Certainly, within five years you should be taking significant responsibility for parts of the business.
The EGP will open the door to tremendous opportunities within Wolseley.
Business Management
You could choose to start your Wolseley career in branch management where you'll be responsible for the day-to-day running of a branch. Our branches enjoy a high degree of autonomy, so you'll act very much like a business owner, making decisions on everything from warehousing to recruitment. Operations managers are concerned with our systems and processes, driving down costs while also delivering outstanding service and making sure that products are provided when and where they're needed.
Sales and Marketing
Wolseley is in the business of establishing and maintaining long-term customer relationships. Our sales and marketing teams are some of the most important and visible elements of this effort. Each country has its own sales organisation which requires good interpersonal skills and working as part of a highly motivated and valued team. Because our customer base ranges from self-employed plumbers to multinational companies, our teams specialise in creating tailored solutions that meet customer needs – precisely. Marketing is carried out on a more centralised basis within each country and requires skills in all aspects of the discipline. Several areas of marketing are co-ordinated under the European marketing function.
Finance and Accounting
These are the functions that monitor the success of Wolseley against our financial goals. As part of the finance and accounting team, you could find yourself providing senior management with detailed analysis of any aspect of the company, supporting the process through which we make new acquisitions or working on Group-wide assignments on the internal audit team. Our finance managers develop the expertise to take a broad overview of the company and are skilled in bringing together all the different areas to help us reach our goals.
Human Resources
As we've already mentioned, people are our competitive advantage. Our operating companies have HR teams that work to attract, develop and retain the high-quality people who will fuel our ambitious growth plans. We can also offer more specialist roles in the areas of recruitment, training, employee relations and remuneration. For those who wish to make a career in HR, the intention is to provide good all-round experience and training so that you can make a major contribution to the development of our people.
Supply Chain and Logistics
Wolseley's reputation is based on being faster, more reliable or just a little bit smarter than the competition. Our logistics network provides a competitive advantage for our business through successful investments in state-of-the-art distribution centres, materials handling equipment and IT systems. As a logistics or supply-chain manager, you'll focus on demand and supply planning, warehousing and transport solutions and the development of our supplier capability. You could also work with our customer-facing teams to ensure that Wolseley continues to be the first choice for customers in our marketplace.
Sourcing and Product Management
Wolseley doesn't manufacture. So we depend on our suppliers to provide a product range that is unrivalled in our sector. Wolseley acts as the hub of the construction industry, linking suppliers to customers and consumers. We work closely with our supply partners to ensure the right quality, availability and price of all our products. Our product and sourcing managers concentrate on supporting branches and direct delivery businesses by building mutually beneficial relationships with the best suppliers in the business.
Information Systems
These are the back-office systems that make the front office operate at maximum effectiveness. We are currently developing a single technology platform. This will support both our local operating companies' need for improved transactional processing for sales, purchasing, warehousing and finance as well as the global requirements of a multinational business.