Plant Manager Exeter

About the Role

We are looking for a Plant Manager to lead our Exeter facility. In this role, you will be responsible for the full operational management of the plant, ensuring a safe, productive, and high-performing work environment while delivering quality products and driving continuous improvement. You will take ownership of all aspects of plant performance, including safety, quality, production, cost, people leadership, resource planning, and continuous improvement. You will lead a manufacturing team and work closely with regional and functional stakeholders to ensure strong alignment between plant priorities and business objectives.

You will play a key role in strengthening operational excellence, developing local capabilities, promoting a no-harm safety culture, and ensuring that the plant continues to deliver sustainable results.

Responsibilities

• Lead all day-to-day operations of the Exeter facility, ensuring safe, reliable, and efficient production.
• Create and maintain a safe and productive workplace, embedding Bekaert’s no-harm safety culture across the plant.
• Set, monitor, and improve plant performance targets, production goals, and key performance indicators.
• Ensure alignment of plant KPIs with regional and business goals.
• Manage plant resources effectively, including people, machinery, budgets, and capital requirements.
• Drive operational performance, including accountability for recoveries against standard and overall plant cost effectiveness.
• Coordinate production schedules with the Planning team to ensure customer and business needs are met.
• Lead and coach plant employees, supervisors, and leaders, building engagement, accountability, and high performance.
• Promote strong shop-floor leadership through coaching, team building, Gemba walks, STOP observations, audits, and structured on-the-job training.
• Establish and maintain plant procedures related to quality, process standards, safety, and people management.
• Support employee relations, including working constructively with union representatives on plant policies, procedures, grievances, and negotiations.
• Ensure compliance with environmental, health, and safety requirements, including OSHA, DEP, EMS guidelines, and internal Bekaert standards.
• Actively contribute to incident investigations, safety improvement actions, and Plant Safety Committee activities.
• Drive continuous improvement through the Bekaert Manufacturing System / BBMS, including standardized work, 5S, Theory of Constraints, playbooks, and improvement routines.
• Build plant capabilities by identifying training needs and ensuring the required know-how and skills are developed in cooperation with HR and manufacturing academy resources.
• Promote best-practice sharing across plants and support the implementation of new ways of working.
• Develop improvement roadmaps and future-state plans focused on productivity, asset utilization, quality, yield, maintenance, energy, and planning performance.
• Perform other duties as required to support the success of the plant and business.

Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree in Management, Business, Accounting, Engineering, or a related field is preferred; equivalent relevant experience will also be considered.
• At least 7 years of management or supervisory experience in a manufacturing environment.
• Experience in wire rope manufacturing is a strong plus.
• Proven ability to lead teams, coach leaders, and build strong collaboration across functions.
• Strong understanding of shop-floor operations and manufacturing performance management.
• Strong safety orientation and commitment to environmental and regulatory compliance.
• Experience with Lean Manufacturing, 5S, standardized work, continuous improvement, and operational excellence tools.
• Strong communication, interpersonal, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience working in a union environment is preferred.
• Ability to work flexibly across shifts, weekends, or holidays when required.

What Will Help You Succeed

You will be successful in this role if you are able to combine strategic oversight with hands-on plant leadership. You keep a clear view of the broader business priorities while staying close to the shop floor, the people, and the operational details that drive performance.

You are a strong people leader who creates clarity, builds trust, and motivates teams to continuously improve. You are comfortable working in a fast-paced manufacturing environment and can balance safety, quality, delivery, cost, and people priorities in a sustainable way.