Commercial Finance Manager - Brand

pladis (UK) Ltd; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

pladis is seeking a Commercial Finance Manager to partner with Brand Directors, shaping the Health & Wellbeing strategy and driving profitable growth for Confectionery and Seasonal lines. You will own forecasting, budgeting, and modelling, turning data into actionable insights.

You will build investment cases, challenge plans with stakeholders, and help optimise pricing, promotions and pack architecture to improve margins.

Qualifications

• Proven FMCG Commercial Finance experience post qualification.
• Strong business partnering and stakeholder management skills.
• Proven delivery in Commercial Finance roles with leadership ability.

Responsibilities

• Partner Brand Directors to shape commercial strategy and investment opportunities.
• Model and evaluate profitability of innovations and promotions.
• Provide clear financial insight to drive margin accretive decisions.
• Support pricing and pack architecture discussions to improve value and ROI.
• Deliver accurate forecasts, budgets and financial reporting.

Skills

Commercial finance

Leadership

Business partnering

Advanced Excel

SAP

Strategic planning

Education

ACCA/ACA/CIMA

Tools

SAP

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you. As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don’t compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits. To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose‑led, resilient and positive to succeed here because we expect pace and agility, we insist on collaboration and demand accountability.

Why join our team?

pladis was established in June2016 and brings together the much loved, global brands of Godiva, McVitie’s, Ulker, and DeMet’s under one pladis umbrella, to form a global giant in biscuits, chocolate, and confectionary. The UK &I pladis region employs 5,000 people across 13 locations in the UK&I (nine manufacturing / distribution sites and four office locations), and is an anchor market for the business. The UK&I region has results‑oriented plans and the Commercial Finance team play a vital role in ensuring delivery of long‑term balanced growth whilst fully understanding current performance. This role will deliver the Commercial Finance thinking for our Indulgent, Healthier, Confectionery and Seasonal brands.

What will this role achieve?

The Commercial Finance Manager role will partner with our Brand Directors to build and deliver our Health & Wellbeing strategy whilst optimally managing the drive of performance and growth in Confectionary and Seasonal. A focus on understanding brand performance, driving profitable winning innovation and ensure marketing investments deliver strong value are central to success. The role requires an ability to deliver constructive challenge whilst building positive relationships across the teams, supporting plans and communicating commercials with clarity. The role holder will report to the UK&I Senior Commercial Finance Manager, whilst working very closely with relevant partners in the Marketing and Innovation teams.

What will be your key results?

• Educate and define winning Brand strategies in collaboration with the Brand teams, through the Brand Planning process
• Support the creation of the commercial strategy and investment opportunities behind our brands, in partnership with Marketing Brand Managers, to drive long‑term balanced growth
• Partner the Brand and Innovation team to model Innovation opportunities, influencing the Commercial proposition and understanding costings to deliver margin accretive innovation opportunities aligned to hurdle rates
• Provide strategic challenge and valuable insight based on Internal & external data and commercial experience, working collaboratively with business partners to deliver the Plan
• Maintain clarity over business performance, understanding drivers of performance (including trends, brand/customer/channel profitability and external competitor influences) which enable annual and strategic planning, supporting course correction and achieving opportunities
• Build detailed business/investment cases where appropriate to deliver Innovation and Brand opportunities across capital and marketing activation, managing within both financial and consumer return on investment benchmarks
• Supply to Net Revenue Management function on opportunities surrounding promotions, pricing and pack architecture to improve value for pladis and retailers, understanding system margin concepts
• Remain curious at all times, displaying a desire for ongoing continual improvement by delivering commercial and process insight in an engaging way
• Apply and develop toolkits and techniques for effective analysis, diagnosis and decision making within business governance cycles, as well as ad hoc analysis
• Support Commercial upskilling of Commercial partners to enable commercially aware, agile decision making

What do you need for this role?

• Proven FMCG Commercial Finance experience post qualification
• A passion for Commercial Finance, able to understand and communicate internal and external performance trends is essential
• Proven delivery in Commercial Finance Roles, with strong leadership, collaboration and communication skills
• Good business partnering ability, able to build and develop long positive relationships
• Strong financial and commercial acuity is essential
• Advanced MS Excel, PPT
• Strong SAP knowledge
• A qualified accountant (ACCA/ACA/CIMA)
• DESIRABLE Knowledge of manufacturing and experience of Snacking categories
• Strategic planning ability

OUR WINNING TRAITS AND BEHAVIOURS

• Purpose‑Led – Energised by our promise to deliver happiness to the world with every bite
• Agile – Ever evolving, never satisfied and never standing still
• Collaborative – Willing to work with others for mutual success
• Resilient – Quick to adapt to change, fast learner and persistent in the face of setbacks
• Positive – Self‑motivated, optimistic, fearless, and inspiring

Diversity and inclusion is central to everything we do and is reflected across our business. pladis brings together brands and people from around the world – and this diversity is our phenomenal strength. We’re an equal opportunities employer and believe in encouraging an inclusive environment where we celebrate diversity of thinking and respect everyone’s distinctive qualities and perspectives. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform key job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation. pladis is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All openings will be filled based on qualifications without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, religion or any other classification protected by law.

We operate a strict Preferred Supplier List. If you are a recruitment agency and wish to submit candidate to be considered for this vacancy, you must have agreed to, and signed, our terms of business. We will not accept CVs from any other sources other than those currently on our PSL. We will not pay a fee for any candidate that has not been represented by a provider on our PSL.

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