Meet The Team: Tony Llewellyn, Commercial Director

Tell us about your career so far?
I can’t really remember doing anything other than recruitment! My mother tells me my early career was in the RAF followed by a stint in financial services – but maybe she’s just covering for me?

Why did you join GCS?
I was impressed by Mike Parry’s integrity and enthusiasm for the business and his passion for the clients he’s working with in the building products sector. For me, it is important to be working in a business where I feel I’m making a difference and one where I can utilise all the skills and experience I’ve picked up over many years!!

What’s your role at GCS?
As Commercial Director, I am responsible for the opening of our new office in the East Midlands and the continued growth thereafter. I am still dealing with select clients too, some of whom I have know for many years and some new ones that generally come through word of mouth and referrals.

The majority of my roles are executive positions in either the building products industry or the food manufacturing sector. However, most executives have highly transferable skill-sets and so the sectors I work in can vary immensely, I’ve even been asked to place a CEO in a Veterinary practice in the past… the brief was to find a strong ‘commercial’ leader who could double the turnover in a five year period –  I believe he did it in three.

What kind of roles are you working on?
Most of the roles I am asked to work on are highly confidential.

What I can say is that I’m also working with some highly talented executives at the moment, assisting in their search for a new challenge. Leaders that are either transformational leaders and ‘turnaround’ specialists or business builders; highly experienced at increasing the EBITDA through innovative ideas and processes. I also have some very talented Sales, Operations and Finance Directors that currently work in either the food manufacturing or the building products sectors and are looking for a new opportunity.

What’s the market expectation at the moment?
There are multiple vacancies at some levels but very few at others. People are surmising that Brexit is to blame for a lack of candidates, others that the pandemic has caused people to migrate away from certain roles and who are not now prepared to return to them.

There is still some uncertainty in the executive market but we are seeing an improvement already with a lot of investment being considered by both business groups and venture capitalists.

At GCS, we are always happy to go that extra mile for our clients and candidates – sourcing the best talent and helping people further their career is what we do!