Commercial Finance Manager

White Stuff was established in 1985 through a simple idea. This idea grew and now we have shops and concessions in the UK and internationally, selling women’s and men’s clothing as well as beautiful accessories and homeware. Our original prints (all designed in house), intricate details and considered design touches reflect our personality and make us subtly distinctive.

Our people are at the heart of our brand, constantly moving and driving us forward. We’re sociable, talented and like minded and we’re not hierarchical or political in how we do business. We encourage entrepreneurial ideas and accountability at all levels.

Who you are:

The successful Commercial Finance Manager will be fully qualified (ACA/ACCA/CIMA) with relevant commercial experience who strives to deliver continuous improvement. You must be a good communicator and business partner, commercially savvy, have strong analytical skills and be able to present financial data clearly and accurately to senior finance managers and non-finance personnel.

Primary objective of the job:

This is a newly created role where you will be working with the buying, merchandising and wholesale teams to maximise profitability. This includes supporting the Senior leadership team and the Senior Commercial Finance Manager to provide financial insights to support the commercial decision making across departments. As lead finance person for your areas, you will be responsible for financial planning and commercial insight with a focus on sales, gross margin and stock. Responsibilities will include; preparation of forecasts, commercial analysis and budget control. This is an excellent role for a candidate who has strong commercial acumen who strives to deliver continuous improvement.

What you’ll be doing:

Provide Finance business support to the head of Buying, Merchandising and Wholesale and to include but not limited to the following key areas of responsibility:

• Take a leading role in the budget and reforecasts, responsible for delivering accurate forecasts, capturing your business areas requirements and managing budget control against these targets.
• Responsible for sales and margin forecasting and trade analysis, supporting and challenging cross functionally, up to director level, to ensure robust plans are set and followed through.
• Ensuring the business are delivering KPI’s that align with the business’ long-term plan.
• Review and challenge merchandise forecasts (inc WSSi’s) to ensure plans are robust and appropriate actions are taken.
• Scenario modelling to support the business, understanding the impact on financials and providing recommendations to the business. This includes business cases to support wholesale expansion into new markets.
• Manage stock provisions, ensuring they are complete and accurate, aligning with trade activity.
• Providing financial support in managing terminal stock including working with 3 rd parties.
• Monitor KPIs across your departments to ensure alignment with forecasts, support business understanding of the key factors impacting results and support the heads of to drive performance.
• Reviewing and challenging our trading calendar to ensure we’re maximising profitability and meeting KPI’s.
• Business Partner with your departments to ensure that financial impact of decisions are considered and actions are taken to drive financial performance.
• Support the Senior Commercial Finance Manager to actively seek opportunities and manage risks across the business, providing clear and concise input to the monthly latest view forecast.
• Instigate investigations into weekly and month end variances. Analysis, drilling down, interrogating, and establishing root causes, highlighting risks and opportunities against targets.
• Own the production of Month end postings commentary. Review channel P&Ls with budget owners at senior leadership and director level, providing insights and recommendations for future actions.
• Ad hoc commercial analysis as required.

What you’ll need:

• Qualified accountant (ACA/ACCA/CIMA or equivalent)
• Relevant industry experience a must, wholesale / merchandising function experience desirable
• Business Partnering experience able to demonstrate ability to manage and influence stakeholders
• Experience working with BI/Oracle is desirable.
• Excellent communication skills - able to tell a complex story in a compelling manner via all means of communication (written, visual and verbal)
• Problem solving - analyse and understand complex data and situations to recommend the optimal solution
• Results focused - delivers work end to end to conclusion in a planned and controlled manner
• Excel modelling - demonstrable experience of building models and reports from a blank canvas

What we will offer you:

As a Commercial Finance Manager at White Stuff you will be entitled to an array of great benefits, some of which include:

• Annual bonus opportunity
• Up to 33 days holiday per annum
• 50% discount
• Subsidised BUPA Dental Insurance
• Healthcare cash plan and Life Assurance
• Interest free season ticket loan
• Pension Contribution

We are committed to creating an environment where we can all be proud to work and be ourselves. Part of this commitment is being an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, and age .

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