Finsbury Food Group is a leading specialist bakery manufacturer, producing a diverse range of cakes, bread and bakery snack products for the major UK multiple retailers and for the foodservice channel. The business has grown both organically and via acquisition. Recent additions to the group include Johnstone’s Food Services (2015) and Fletchers Bakeries (2014).

The group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and recorded a turnover of just under £320m last year, posting profit before tax at £16m. The positive results that Finsbury has achieved in recent times are through the hard work of the team, sound business decision-making and the reliable manufacture and supply of great quality products.

The business has two primary divisions, Bread & Cake which operate as largely independent operating units.  The cake finance team has around 45 team members. Steven Hill has joined the business in 2016 as Finance Director for the Cakes division and is eager to further enhance the team and increase focus on robust financial support for operations.

Finsbury Food Group has a long-standing relationship with the licensed brand sector, manufacturing quality cakes for some of the biggest entertainment brands in the market. The company is the largest supplier of celebration cakes to the UK’s multiple grocers. Within its bread portfolio, Finsbury Food Group produce Vogel’s seeded bread, Cranks Organic and Village Bakery Rye bread, all of which hold niche positions in the premium bread market.

For further information on Finsbury Food Group, visit www.finsburyfoods.co.uk

The business is looking to recruit an accountant with experience in the FMCG sector who can advise and support the Senior Leadership Teams with insightful, relevant and evidence based information.

This is a key role within the Site Operational Leadership Team, leading and developing the management accounts function at the Hamilton and Twechar sites, which will influence the required results in all areas within specific cost constraints.

The post-holder will report to the Head of Finance giving excellent exposure and will be an integral part of the Finance team, reporting on the financial performance of the business on a timely and accurate basis.  This individual will be assigned tasks related to daily, weekly and monthly reporting and will also be required to backfill some duties carried out by senior members of the team as business demands dictate.

The primary purpose of the role is to ensure that daily, weekly and monthly reporting for the sites is completed accurately and in line with company required procedures and deadlines.

The Operations Finance Manager will be a pivotal member of the Finance team and business and their main duties and responsibilities will involve:

• Responsibility for all management accounting functions (daily, weekly, monthly reporting)

• Leading a team of  3 direct reports

• Ensure all reporting deadlines are met and all submissions are complete, accurate and timely

• Oversee the completion of the management accounting aspects of the annual budget and reforecasting process, monitoring performance against the budget and driving performance corrective action improvement through Operational Leadership Team and Senior Leadership Team where necessary

• Make sure all product costings are completed in a timely, accurate and consistent manner

• To lead by example in encouraging appropriate behavioural standards in support of the company’s values and culture, coaching teams in the implementation and training of the company’s systems and procedures

• Preparation of robust business justifications for capital, feasibility and improvement projects, working closely with direct reports and key support functional Hamilton OLT and SLT members to lead / participate in initiatives from concept to completion

• Maintain and continually improve the sites costing models to ensure optimum labour and material recovery rates are delivered; influencing as necessary direct reports and key support functional Hamilton Operational Leadership Team members to deliver required supporting models to support the operational framework

• Responsible for ensuring compliance with food safety, health and safety, environmental, legality and quality systems

• Assisting with the sharing of best practice within cake business and wider Finsbury Food Group where relevant

• Coordinate the planning of management accounting resources across the site; identifying internal and external resource requirements, deploying them effectively and managing these resources via direct and indirect reporting teams

• Responsibility for KPI reporting and ensuring trends understood and shared with Key stakeholders

• Responsibility for the correct calculation & control of raw material & finished goods stocks, including stock counts

• Ensuring the development and training of the management accounting team and management of the overall structure to ensure sufficient succession plans are in place

The Operations Finance Manager position requires an accountant who ideally comes with experience of the FMCG sector and enjoys working closely with non-finance management.

A summary of the key candidate requirements are as follows:

• Qualified accountant (CA, ACCA, CIMA)
• Ideally, experience in a similar role within a food manufacturing business
• Excellent analysis and financial interrogation skills
• Full grasp of production margins, bill of materials and variance
• Strong commercial acumen with understanding of an NPD process
• Ability to meet tight reporting deadlines
• Advanced Excel experience with an ability to work with large, complex spreadsheets
• Ability to work individually and as a member of the site management team
• Strong leadership skills
• Ability to communicate with non-financial managers

Basic Salary:                               Circa £50,000 (depending on experience)

Pension:                                     Employer contribution 3%

Holidays:                                    34 days total

For further information on salary and the benefits package please contact Jonathan Donnelly [email protected] or 0141 611 7770.

First round interviews are with our advisors at Rutherford Cross

Second round interviews are with the  Head of Finance

Final stages are with the Finance Director and Site Director

Applications should be sent to [email protected]