Associate Finance Business Partner
We drive our own success
Associate Finance Business Partner
Location: Deal, Kent
Business Area: Finance
Contract Type: Permanent
Working Hours: Monday to Friday 8:30am to 5:00pm
Why join us?
We’re constantly evolving, progressing and diversifying. And we want our people to do so too. For everyone to feel empowered, engaged and enabled. To create opportunities to move forward, climb higher and push for more. We believe in fuelling ambition and guiding success. In supporting everyone with talent and drive to own what they do, realise their potential and build a brilliant future for themselves at Bakkavor.
About the role
We’re proud to offer you a career with real scope for development. To reward your hard work and ambition as a talented Associate Finance Business Partner with plenty of support and opportunity. Empowering you to drive your own success and create a career you can be proud of too.
In this busy and exciting role, you will support the (Senior) Finance Business Partners with providing insight to the Factory Management and wider Operations teams - to aid decision-making that drives site profitability.
You will become part of the broader Business Finance Team and build a positive working relationship with the Business FP&A Team - to communicate factory trends and cost drivers for input to financial models.
Transactional processing, analysis and adherence to Group controls following SOPs to execute tasks within agreed SLAs and KPIs – will be top of your agenda.
Role Accountabilities
Business Partnering
- Supporting the (Senior) Finance Business Partners in translating complex financial data into clear and actionable business insights
- Fostering collaborative relationships with stakeholders to remain up to date with latest operation activity and priorities
- Working closely with wider business teams to accurately gather data for profit improvement initiatives to track their progress against defined financial targets
- Reviewing and analyse P&L and Tracker information to highlight trends
- Providing information and insight to the (Senior) Finance Business Partner to aid their input to the Finance Shared Services Team in their production of weekly and monthly Overhead reports and P&Ls / balance sheet reconciliations
- Supporting with cost centre reviews alongside cost centre owners and assisting with any ad hoc information requests or deep dives into data
- Generating ad-hoc operational and overhead reports to support the analysis of business performance
- Collaborating with Operational teams to understand full Redzone functionality
Forecasting
- Understanding Business trends and cost drivers and ensuring these are effectively communicated to Business FP&A Team for inclusion in 13-week tracker forecasts, quarterly rolling forecasts and 3-year Business plans
- Delivering feedback to the Business FP&A Team members on any forecast data templates and supporting analysis in a timely and accurate manner, for inclusion in financial forecast submissions
- Providing Cost Centre Managers with information and analysis to aid preparation of overhead forecast plans, ensuring they accurately reflect expected inflation
- Understanding monthly and quarterly variance analysis between actual financial performance and forecasts/budgets prepared by Business FP&A Team
Product Costing & Pricing
- Supporting standard cost reset activities (prepared by the Business FP&A Team) and performing deep dives into data to support any complex pricing decisions
- Contributing to the end-to-end costings process, ensuring timetable and controls are adhered to from a Finance perspective
- Ensuring adherence to agreed financial processes and controls within the costing system (Recipe Professor)
- Supporting on product costing meetings and ensuring all launch and implementation costs are captured, including opportunities and risks associated with operational processes that could impact the financials
- Supporting preparers of new and existing product development costs, escalating concerns as necessary to the (Senior) Finance Business Partners. Ensuring the correct costs are included in ‘As-is/To-be’ models at each stage of the Development process
- Working with Business FP&A team as necessary, to prepare any ad-hoc costing analysis as requested by the wider operations team in a timely and efficient manner
- Understanding variances against standard cost and ensuring these are accurately captured to maintain a catalogue of actual cost by product
Capital Management and Investment Appraisal
- Assisting with preparation of capital invoice additions forecast and capital cash forecast, identifying project slippage and supporting generation of corrective action plans
Communication and Change Management
- Build relationships with key internal stakeholders and effectively communicate escalations
- Work with the Business FP&A Team and Finance Shared Services to communicate related updates, progress, and challenges
- Collaborating closely with peers from the Business FP&A Team and Finance Shared Services to harmonise ways of working and drive process improvements
- Supporting the (Senior) Finance Business Partners to work closely with the wider Operations and Site Excellence teams to identify continuous improvement opportunities and cost reduction plans
- Contributing to projects as required, examples of which range from supporting centralisation projects and IS transformation projects
- Working with other parts of the broader finance function (Finance Shared Services, Group, UK FP&A) and central excellence teams as relevant, contributing to the UK finance agenda, driving best practice and standardisation
Control Environment
- Assisting and supporting in all internal & external audit related activities as required
- Ensuring site adherence to Group controls, identifying and challenging gaps and supporting wider ops teams to resolve and implement new and improved processes that align to agreed standards
- Supporting site asset verification activity
About you
Ideally, you will have a strong understanding of accounting concepts and / or will be currently undergoing professional accounting qualification training (AAT/ACA/ACCA/CIMA).
Knowledge of Operational Finance, strong written and verbal communication skills to convey information clearly and concisely, MS Office proficiency, effective time management, diligence and the ability to engage / effectively build relationships with internal and external stakeholders – will be key.
Previous experience of working with Business Intelligence Tools would be highly desirable.
If you have a passion for Finance, are comfortable operating in a fast paced and dynamic work environment and open to change, with the competence to positively contribute to the growth and transformation of your immediate team – this could be the perfect role for you.
What you’ll receive
As an equal opportunity employer, we’re committed to providing a safe and rewarding environment for you to thrive in. This is why we work hard to deliver benefits, rewards and wellbeing offerings that are important to you.
You’ll enjoy:
- Life Assurance (1 x salary)
- 25 days holiday
- Staff Shop
- Stakeholder Pension Scheme
- MyBargains Discount Platform
- Personal Accident Insurance
- Free Independent Mortgage Advice
- Employee Assistance Programme
- A Range of voluntary benefits (holiday purchase scheme, additional life assurance, dental & hospital cash plans)
- Discounted tutoring for children
- Access to financial learning tools and affordable loans via your salary
- Private Medical Insurance (after 5 years’ service)
Plus, a commitment to your wellbeing that includes emotional, physical and financial support services delivered by our fantastic team of wellbeing champions.
Proud to be Bakkavor
We’re the biggest name you’ve never heard of. You’ve probably eaten our food. You just didn’t realise it. Because as global leaders in the fresh prepared food industry, we create innovative products, including meals, soups, dips, salads, desserts, pizzas and breads for our customers in the UK, US and China. We’re ambitious. We're full of ideas and we're ready for more people to join us who share our passion for quality – come and join our dedicated Bakkavor team!
Find out more and apply
Tilmanstone, GB, CT15 4NL