Ferroli

Ferroli is an Italian heating manufacturer founded in Verona in 1955, designing and producing domestic and commercial boilers, water heaters and renewable heating products across its own manufacturing plants in Italy, Spain and China. The UK subsidiary, Ferroli UK, has been operating since the late 1980s, supplying the merchant channel and specifying into housebuilders, social housing providers and local authorities. The product range covers gas combi and system boilers, commercial boilers, water heaters and renewable heating systems sold predominantly through the plumbing and heating merchant route to market.

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With new ownership came new ambition. Ferroli decided the time was right to reinvest in the UK market after a prolonged hiatus. Once a recognised force in the Scottish local authority and social housing sectors, the brand had been reduced to one that merchants simply didn't stock, with little meaningful market share against the dominant players — Vokera, Ideal Heating and Worcester Bosch. A new Managing Director had been appointed and his first priority was rebuilding the UK sales team. The Area Sales Manager hire was a foundational appointment in that rebuild — someone who could open merchant doors, drive specification into housebuilders and social landlords, and re-establish Ferroli's presence in a key regional market.

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Two things made this hire difficult. Many industry-experienced candidates had no appetite for the challenge — legacy perception of the brand in the merchant channel was poor, and the strongest performers were comfortable selling brands that were already well-established and well-supported by their employers. Convincing a credible heating sector salesperson to leave that security for a brand-rebuild role required the right narrative and the right financial package. Second, the merchant route to market is unforgiving — without an existing network and credibility, an ASM can spend twelve months opening doors before generating meaningful turnover. We needed candidates with the contacts, the resilience and the commercial instinct to shorten that runway.

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We built the shortlist across two parallel tracks. The first track targeted candidates from inside the heating sector who were at a career stage where a brand-rebuild challenge was genuinely appealing — typically people who had grown into senior ASM roles at established competitors and were looking for a step up in scope and autonomy. The second track looked at adjacent building products categories that share the merchant route to market, where transferable channel knowledge could compensate for the absence of heating-specific product depth. The SRUK Fit Score process assessed every candidate against the brief — heating sector credibility, merchant channel relationships, specification experience with local authority and social housing buyers, appetite for a brand-rebuild challenge, geographic fit and salary alignment. Ferroli received a comparable shortlist of four candidates rather than an assortment of CVs, with consultant commentary explaining where each candidate scored highly and where they didn't.

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