London - Finance Analyst - Operations

Wasabi Co.; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 42,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension scheme

Target Bonus

Free Sushi or hot food

50% discount in our Branches

Employee Assistant Programme

Life Assurance

Cycle To Work

Free on-site parking

Perkbox discounts

Job summary

Wasabi Co. is seeking a Finance Analyst - Operations to join the Finance Team in Park Royal. The role focuses on going beyond numbers to understand what drives restaurant performance, identifying opportunities to increase revenue, improve profitability and reduce costs.

You will analyse P&L, trading, labour and cost data, provide actionable insights, and support implementation with a strong emphasis on business partnering with Operations and Procurement.

Qualifications

• 2–4 years in a commercial or operational finance analyst role within restaurants, QSR or hospitality.
• Strong grasp of multi-site P&L economics and cost drivers (labour, food, waste).
• Proven ability to drive decisions with analysis, not just produce reports.

Responsibilities

• Analyse P&L, trading, labour and cost data to identify opportunities and quantify impact.
• Benchmark restaurants and identify performance gaps to inform actions.
• Build business cases for operational improvements with clear payback and ROI.

Skills

Commercial finance

Operational finance

Advanced Excel

Power BI

SQL

AI tools

Finance partnering

Education

CIMA/ACCA/ACA part or full

Tools

EPOS data

Job description

Founded in 2003 by Dong Hyun Kim, his mission was simple, to make fresh and flavorsome sushi and bento available to everyone. Almost 20 years later Wasabi have 40 successful branches across London, other UK major cities and New York.

The journey continued in 2019 with the launch of Wasabi Home Bento exclusively into Sainsburys. After several years of great success there, the grocery business expanded launching into Tesco in September 2022. Wasabi has now firmly established itself as the No2 chilled ready meal brand and a driver of significant market growth. And we’re just getting started. The leadership team have set out their 5 year strategy which encompasses company growth, franchise and international expansion.

Our menu is renowned for its distinctiveness, freshness and flavour. The cold food range of sushi, pokes and salads are made fresh daily in our branch kitchens and our hot bento, noodle bowls and soups offer an indulgent and comforting alternative to our broad and democratic demographic.

As we prepare for our next phase of growth and innovation, we have an incredibly exciting opportunity for a Finance Analyst - Operations to join our Finance Team based in Park Royal.

The Role:

This is an analytical role, not a reporting role. Periodic reporting is produced elsewhere within the Finance team, and the focus of this position is to go beyond the numbers to understand what drives restaurant performance and identify opportunities to increase revenue, improve profitability and reduce costs.

Working closely with Operations, the Finance Analyst will analyse P&L, trading, labour and cost data to identify and quantify actionable business opportunities, providing clear insights and recommendations and supporting their implementation through to delivery.

Key Responsibilities:

Restaurants profitability and P&L insight

• Dig into Restaurants and estate P&L performance to identify the underlying drivers of profit, rather than restating the variances.
• Benchmark restaurants against each other to understand what the best performers do differently, and quantify the value of closing the gap.
• Identify structurally underperforming restaurants and build the analysis to support decisions on their future.

Labour and operational efficiency

• Analyse labour deployment against sales by Restaurants, day and daypart to find productivity opportunities.
• Work with Operations to test rota, labour model and opening hours changes, and measure the impact.
• Understand the operational drivers of cost and translate them into practical recommendations Area Managers can act on.

Margin, COGS and waste

• Investigate gross margin leakage, including waste, stock variances, shrinkage and production over or under ordering.
• Identify and size COGS improvement opportunities with Procurement and Food teams, tracking the benefit through to the P&L.
• Analyse the profitability of products, ranges and dayparts at Restaurants level.

Restaurants running costs

• Challenge Restaurants overheads such as utilities, repairs and maintenance, packaging and consumables, finding savings and testing their delivery.

Commercial and investment analysis

• Build business cases for operational initiatives, including new equipment, process changes, refits and new restaurants, with clear payback and return on investment.
• Carry out post-investment reviews to check whether initiatives delivered what was promised.
• Support trading analysis on range, pricing and promotions, with a focus on the impact on Restaurants profitability.

Business partnering

• Act as the finance partner to Operations, bringing insight and challenge to performance conversations.
• Track agreed opportunities and hold the business to account for delivering them.
• Build strong relationships across Operations, Property, Purchasing and the wider finance team.

Our requirements:

• to 4 years' experience in a commercial or operational finance analyst role within restaurants, QSR, food-to-go, hospitality or multi-site retail.
• Strong understanding of multi-site P&L economics and the operational levers that drive them, particularly labour, food cost and waste.
• A track record of analysis that led to a decision or a measurable saving, not just a report.
• Naturally curious, with the instinct to ask why and keep going until the root cause is found.
• Advanced Excel skills and confidence working with large EPOS, labour and stock datasets.
• Use/optimise A.I tools to unlock efficiencies and improve accuracy
• Able to explain findings simply to non-finance colleagues and challenge Operations constructively.
• Rigorous with data, checking inputs and reconciling back to source before drawing conclusions.
• Part or fully qualified CIMA, ACCA or ACA, or studying towards a qualification.
• Experience with Power BI, SQL or similar tools for analysing large datasets.
• Experience building investment cases and running post-investment reviews.
• Exposure to labour scheduling or stock management systems.

In return we provide:

• A great working environment
• Pension scheme
• Target Bonus
• Refer A Friend Scheme
• Free Sushi or hot food (vegan options available)
• 50% discount in our Branches
• Employee Assistant Programme
• Long Service Awards
• Stream - a financial wellbeing benefit that lets you access your pay as you earn it in real time and manage savings
• Life Assurance
• Cycle To Work
• Free on-site parking
• A variety of discounts (shopping, food & drink, entertainment and health & fitness) through Perkbox
• Online GP service via Perkbox and
• The opportunity to develop your skills within a growing company.

Our people make us who we are. If you're looking for an exciting challenge and this sounds like the job for you.

COME ROLL WITH US!