Background
Maritime Transport, the UK's largest privately owned intermodal logistics operator, appointed Maxwell Stephens to recruit an experienced Facilities Management (FM) Manager to strengthen the management of its growing national estate.
Established in 2001, Maritime Transport had developed into a business with turnover exceeding £500 million, 39 sites across the UK and a workforce of approximately 3,000 people. Operating across a geographically dispersed and operationally intensive property portfolio, effective facilities management was essential to maintaining safe, compliant and efficient environments while supporting the company's continued growth.
Maritime Transport required a senior FM professional capable of overseeing its Midlands operations while providing leadership to a national facilities team, combining operational expertise with strategic planning, property management and strong compliance knowledge.
The Challenge
The scale and nature of Maritime Transport's estate made this a demanding facilities management appointment. The successful candidate needed to manage facilities requirements across multiple sites while ensuring standards remained consistent throughout an organisation operating within a fast-moving logistics environment.
Key requirements included:
- Multi-site facilities management. Overseeing facilities activity across the Midlands while supporting the effective management of a broader national property portfolio.
- National team leadership. Providing direction to the facilities team and ensuring local activity remained aligned with wider organisational priorities.
- Property asset management. Maintaining effective oversight of property assets and ensuring buildings and infrastructure remained suitable for operational requirements.
- Planned and reactive maintenance. Developing and managing appropriate maintenance programmes to support asset reliability and reduce avoidable operational disruption.
- Statutory compliance. Maintaining a thorough understanding of relevant statutory requirements and ensuring facilities activities remained appropriately compliant.
- Health and safety. Applying strong knowledge of health and safety procedures to support safe working environments across a diverse portfolio.
- Strategic facilities planning. Developing and implementing facilities plans capable of supporting both current operations and Maritime Transport's longer-term growth ambitions.
- Operational efficiency. Identifying opportunities to improve facilities processes, maintenance practices and resource utilisation.
- Supporting portfolio growth. Ensuring facilities management had the structure and capability required to support a growing network of sites.
- Sustainability. Contributing to operational practices that complemented Maritime Transport's wider focus on sustainable supply-chain solutions.
Our Approach
Maxwell Stephens conducted a targeted search for experienced facilities professionals with a proven background in large-scale, multi-site and operationally demanding environments.
Given the geographical scope and leadership responsibilities of the role, candidates needed to offer more than strong site-management experience. Maritime Transport required someone capable of taking a strategic view of the estate while remaining sufficiently close to operations to address practical facilities challenges. Logistics estates also differ from office portfolios: yards, depots and workshops carry their own compliance and maintenance demands, so we prioritised candidates who had worked in comparable industrial settings. Our assessment focused on experience in:
- multi-site facilities management
- large and geographically dispersed estates
- team leadership
- property asset management
- planned and reactive maintenance
- statutory compliance
- health and safety
- strategic facilities planning
- operational improvement
- supporting organisational growth
Particular emphasis was placed on candidates who could combine strategic thinking, strong technical knowledge and practical operational leadership.
The Outcome
Following a detailed search and assessment process, Maxwell Stephens placed an experienced facilities management professional whose background closely matched Maritime Transport's requirements. The successful candidate brought substantial multi-site facilities management experience together with a strong track record in strategic planning and operational delivery:
- Stronger multi-site FM leadership. Experienced facilities leadership across Midlands operations, with strengthened support for the wider national portfolio.
- Improved maintenance planning. A more structured approach to maintenance helped optimise schedules and strengthen the management of property assets across the estate.
- Better compliance. The candidate's understanding of statutory requirements and health and safety supported a proactive approach to compliance across Maritime Transport's facilities.
- Greater operational efficiency. Facilities processes were reviewed and streamlined, supporting more effective service delivery across multiple sites.
- Stronger strategic planning. Rather than focusing solely on immediate operational issues, the new FM Manager brought the capability to consider longer-term property and facilities requirements in the context of Maritime Transport's continued expansion.
- Support for future growth. By strengthening facilities management capability, the appointment helped ensure Maritime Transport's property infrastructure was better positioned to support the organisation's ongoing development and operational ambitions.
Why This Placement Worked
The placement gave Maritime Transport an FM Manager capable of combining multi-site facilities leadership, property asset management, compliance, maintenance strategy and operational improvement across a large national portfolio. By identifying a candidate with both the strategic outlook and the practical experience required, Maxwell Stephens helped Maritime Transport strengthen its facilities function while supporting the organisation's continued growth.
It also reflects our experience recruiting facilities professionals for complex logistics and industrial environments, where operational continuity, safety and asset performance are fundamental to business success.
If you need an experienced Facilities Manager to lead a large, multi-site or operationally complex estate, Maxwell Stephens can help. Get in touch with our team.