Manufacturing executive search for plant, operations and supply chain leadership. Clients include Coats, Norbord, Bühler and Linde.
Oryx provides manufacturing executive search for plant and site leadership, operations, continuous improvement, automation, quality, health and safety, and end-to-end supply chain. Clients include Coats, Norbord, Bühler, Linde Material Handling, Calder and Johnson Matthey, spanning process, discrete and highly automated production. The people who succeed in these roles are identifiable by what they have changed: OEE and yield improvement, a line or facility commissioned successfully, a lean or Six Sigma programme that held after they left, a safety record rebuilt. Our research team looks for that evidence specifically, mapping the plants and groups where it exists rather than relying on candidates who have chosen to make themselves available. We work across food and beverage, building products, textiles and technical fibres, chemicals and speciality materials, packaging, automotive and general engineering production, in single-site businesses and in multi-plant international groups.
Retained by plant owners, group operations and site leadership who cannot afford a miss
Bodycote is the world's largest provider of heat treatment and specialist metallurgical services, focusing on heat treatment, hot isostatic pressing (HIP), and surface technology. They alter and improve the properties of metals and alloys to make manufactured components stronger and last longer. Oryx has handled a range of senior group commercial roles.
REA JET designs and manufactures industrial coding, marking, and labeling systems, including high-resolution inkjet printers, laser markers, and code verification tools. Their technology is used globally to print text, logos, and barcodes directly onto products and packaging. Oryx handled the assignment to recruit a new MD for the UK subsidiary.
Kelpi is a sustainable materials innovation company that creates high-performance, seaweed-based coatings to replace fossil fuel plastics in packaging. Oryx handled the project to hire a new COO.
As a manufacturing headhunter, Oryx approaches those individuals directly and in confidence, presenting the opportunity in person. This matters when a site director's departure would be visible to a workforce, a customer or a competitor, and confidentiality is a condition of the search. The firm has operated on this model since 1988 and is employee-owned, and the majority of our work has always been in engineering and manufacturing industries. Consultants typically stay with us for over ten years, so clients are not handed between account managers. Every search delivers proactive primary research, weekly auditable progress data and a pre-qualified shortlist within eight weeks, with psychometric assessment available where cultural fit on a long-established site is the main risk. Our manufacturing recruiters work across the UK and internationally, including on plant start-ups and post-acquisition leadership changes. Talent mapping is frequently commissioned ahead of a network review or a footprint change, giving a board an evidenced view of the leadership available in a region before it commits capital to it.
Rebecca Ross
Director
26 years with Oryx
Nic Davis
Senior Consultant
11 years with Oryx
Colette Brown
Director
27 years with Oryx
Alex Mitchell
Director
26 years with Oryx
Will Strange
Director
28 years with Oryx
Gemma Killin
Senior Research Manager
12 years with Oryx
Phil Moran
Managing Director
37 years with Oryx
Jon Badger
Senior Research Manager
22 years with Oryx
Alec Berry
Senior Research manager
14 years with Oryx
