JIM
Financial Planning and Reporting Manager
I graduated from Teesside University in 1985 with a 2:2 BA (hons) in Business Studies. I then started as a graduate trainee accountant with Lucas Diesel Systems in Gillingham, Kent. This gave me a really good grounding in all the various finance activities within the business as I completed secondments in each area. I qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant in July 1990, and then decided that it was a good time to take a career break and do some travelling, which was something I always wanted to do. I travelled round Australia, New Zealand and the Far East for eight months.
When I returned I got a permanent job fairly quickly, and started with Nestlé Rowntree in 1991. My first position was as a Factory Accountant reporting to the Chief Factory Accountant. My initial responsibilities were to do with KitKat, but I later moved onto Aero, Drifter, Polo’s and Smarties. During this time I gained a really good insight into factory accounting and variance control.
In the summer of 1994 I was promoted to become the Factory Accountant for Leicester Factory. This was a small factory which produced Fox’s Glacier Mints and Fruits, Polo Fruits and Willy Wonka Candy. This meant that I was responsible for all the finance at the factory, rather than previously at York reporting into a Factory Accountant. I also managed a team of 3 in this role.
Towards the end of 1994 it was decided to set up Fox Confectionery as a stand alone business splitting it out from Nestlé Rowntree. Fox’s had responsibility for selling Fox’s, Polo Fruits, Willy Wonka Candy and Toffo. This was a business with a turnover of around £30m. The aim was that this could be a lean, small division that wasn’t tied into some of the bigger Nestlé complexities, and could therefore trade in its own right, and would eventually return these brands to a profit. I was promoted to be the Finance Manager for Fox’s, and reported into the Fox’s Divisional Manager. This was a very exciting time when I was part of a small business unit, and it gave me a really good insight into the commercial side of the business.
Unfortunately the Fox’s business could not be turned around quickly enough due to commercial reasons. This business was therefore sold off at the end of 1997, and I transferred to Croydon in January 1998 to become a Management Accountant in the Foodservice Division working on the Beverage side. In this role I was responsible for all P&L and financial reporting actuals and forecasts for this side of the business.
From there I transferred to Beverage division in 1999 to become the Financial Planning Manager responsible for all financial reporting and forecasting. This involved managing a team of 5 people, and gave me some really good experience of the Beverage models, green coffee beans, and also managing a bigger team.
In March 2006 the decision was taken to set up the Financial Planning and Reporting department with responsibility for all Croydon divisions (turnover c £650m). I was promoted to head this up, and have 4 direct reports with a total team of 16 people. This has given me further experience of managing a larger team and also managing a significant change program for the department.
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