Head of UK Sales

The Company

Today DeepStore provides expert commercial document storage and retrieval services and is the UK’s largest underground storage company. Based in Winsford, Cheshire, 150m below ground, the company was established in 1998 as an alternative use for the space created from mining millions of tonnes of rock salt in Britain’s largest salt mine – owned and operated by our parent company, Compass Minerals.

In 2007, DeepStore expanded with the acquisition of a London-based document storage firm, providing them with a modern facility in the Capital and enabling a same-day document retrieval and a full range of records management services to businesses throughout the South of England.

The Brief

Following a long and successful career with our business over thirty years, DeepStore’s incumbent Head of Sales had announced his retirement in early 2023 and was working towards a three month exit. As such, the business was now looking to appoint an experienced Head of Sales to replace the long-serving incumbent, to lead the sales team and achieve DeepStore’s growth ambitions over the coming years.

DeepStore’s UK management team knew they needed an experienced sales leader with a background in the document storage sector. As such they required a highly capable headhunting outfit to carry out a search of the talent landscape and recruit a new Head of Sales to the business. Having recently supported DeepStore’s parent company Compass Minerals with a successful search campaign for a HR leader, Sherrington Associates was appointed as the retained search partner in February 2023.

The Search

Despite enjoying a strong position within a niche end of the document storage market, namely the heritage and archiving sector, DeepStore knew the market was largely comprised of larger, corporate entities where candidates would likely be less likely to assimilate into the culture of a highly entrepreneurial business like DeepStore.

The search required Sherrington’s delivery team to carry out mapping across both large corporate entities and mid-sized competitors in order to identify high-calibre sales leaders. Extensive research pinpointed candidates in both domestic and overseas markets, whom once supplied with a compelling Recruitment Pack developed by Sherrington’s design team, were invited to submit a CV for consideration.

Longlisted candidates were interviewed by our Consultants and their values were assessed for alignment with DeepStore’s organisational culture. During the interviews, candidates were asked to evidence their sales leadership credentials and references were requested.

The Result

The final shortlist were invited to interview with clients from DeepStore’s senior leadership team and following a thorough assessment and selection process, Gavin Murphy, formerly Head of Sales UK & Ireland for Oasis Group was appointed.

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Pictured from left to right: Rob McKay (MD, Sherrington Associates), Gordon Dunn (MD, Compass Minerals), Morag Horne (Head of HR, Compass Minerals), Gavin Murphy (Head of Sales, Deepstore), Chris Heywood (Commercial Director, Compass Minerals), Joe Onions (Sherrington Associates).