Interim FP&A Finance Business Partner

My client a leading Retail business is looking to hire an FP&A Business Partner within their London offices. The purpose of the role is intended to support both the business and Head of UK FP&A in achieving key strategic ambitions through insightful, value adding analysis and commercial challenge. This is both on a monthly reporting cycle, ensuring rigor in performance management (refocused insight led management reporting), as well as project/ad-hoc work ensuring accurate scenario modeling and robust commercial thinking aligning to strategic goals.

The position will work closely with the Head of Property, the senior UK management team, Management Accountants and the Group FP&A team.

The role will be focused on supporting the property areas of the business, assisting the delivery of projects that underpin key strategic business initiatives. The incumbent will demonstrate clear understanding of performance in those areas, working closely with senior stakeholders to report on investments, the delivery of the underlying site property costs and relevant initiatives. The role will, ultimately, be focused on improving the EBITDA, supporting business cases for board review whilst achieving required financial performance and paybacks for capital invested, over the short and longer term.

Project Work

• Work as a key business partner with senior property management to develop business cases - project financials and written business proposals that assess specific site investment opportunities.
• Complete capex proposal templates, with stakeholders, to gain Group approval (as required)
• Demonstrate learning from pervious investment and prioritise activities on scalable EBITDA opportunities

Ongoing/Routine Accountabilities

• Maximise business opportunities
• Analyse performance against the Long Range Plan, Budget, Forecasts and prior year evaluating risks and opportunities and recommending appropriate actions
• Driven by a detailed knowledge and understanding of the business plan, interpret management information to create high level summaries of the key business issues and opportunities that will inform decision making
• Work closely with the relevant Heads of to ensure monthly functional reviews draw out financial and KPI performance ensuring clarity and a focus on required management action
• Deliver commercial analysis to support tactical & strategic decision making including projects that support capital appraisal for EBITDA enhancing initiatives and other key strategic decisions
• Continuously develop reporting processes to track the financial performance of key strategic business priorities, ultimately feeding into an integrated, automated (where possible) and robust reporting process
• Continuously develop and implement, with guidance, a post-investment review process that tracks budgeted EBITDA Enhancing Capex initiatives, interim and final, reporting key risks and opportunities for senior management to act upon and lessons for future investments
• Support delivery of business presentations, territory/management information packs, briefings to facilitate informed discussions with key stakeholders relating to business performance
• Create effective and credible business partnerships with key stakeholders to proactively identify and help drive actions that maximise profitability

The Person

• Fully qualified accountant CIMA qualified (although ACA/ACCA candidates will be considered if they have sufficient commercial finance experience)
• Experience in a Commercial Finance/FP&A business partnering role
• From a Retail, Leisure, Hospitality sector where they are used to pace and commerciality
• Post-qualified multi-site budgeting and forecasting experience, with demonstrable accountability for delivery of key aspects of a budget/forecast
• Commercially astute and able to demonstrate business case development/project delivery in a fast-paced environment