Company Name
Johnstone Supply South Texas
Search Job Title
Vice President of Operations
Client Profile
Johnstone Supply of South Texas is a privately owned co-op member of Johnstone Supply LLC (w/ branch locations in South Texas include Victoria, Corpus Christi (2), Brownsville, La Feria, Pharr, and Laredo), and is a leading HVACR (heating, ventilation, air-conditioning & refrigeration),wholesale distributor of parts, supplies, and equipment, to Residential, Light Commercial, Refrigeration and Facilities Maintenance contractors.
Role Objectives & Challenges
The company President was seeking to fill a new VP of Operations position overseeing operations performance companywide. This position will strengthen relationships across the organization & dealer network and continue expanding market share & growth within these markets. The VP will do this by analyzing existing business operations, identify efficiency opportunities, adjust organizational processes & facility operations, to ensure the company has the proper operational controls, administrative and reporting procedures, and talent in place to effectively grow the business and financial profitability. The challenge of this particular search was to source & qualify a best-in-class operations executive with multi-site experience in the HVAC/R wholesale distribution industry, with the demonstrated soft-skills, strategic acumen, hands-on leadership style, & customer-oriented approach to establish & strengthen relationships across South Texas.
Our Approach to Solve the Search
Our approach to solving the search involved leveraging SCM Talent Group’s extensive track record in senior executive recruitment, particularly with Johnstone Supply owners. This, coupled with our established network and expertise in industrial wholesale distribution, led to an opportunity to meet with the South Texas President. During this meeting, we discussed a proposed VP of Operations "Retained" search and explored the best ways to partner and collaborate, ensuring continuous candidate sourcing progress. We committed to providing weekly Sourcing Pipeline reports to align expectations, expedite submittals, facilitate interview scheduling, and support the new hire onboarding process.
The Hire & Results
With robust omni-channel sourcing and networking, we successfully vetted several top-tier wholesale HVAC/R distribution candidates and narrowed the field of qualified top-tier candidates to four finalists, ultimately agreeing to present the top two for onsite interviews. Ultimately one candidate stood out as the preferred finalist and received and accepted an offer, after eight weeks of active screening with a start date in January 2024.
