Group Financial Controller

William Grant & Sons Ltd. is a highly profitable, independent, c£1.2bn turnover family-owned Scottish company that distils Scotch whisky and other selected categories of spirits. They were established in 1887 by William Grant, and are now managed by the descendants of the founder.

They are the largest of the Scotch whisky distillers remaining in family ownership. The company is the third largest producer of Scotch whisky (10.4% market share) after Diageo (34.4%), and Pernod Ricard and has offices and all over the world. These offices include New York, Shanghai, South Korea, Singapore and of course their central headquarters in Strathclyde Business Park, near Glasgow and Sales & Marketing headquarters in London.

At William Grant & Sons they are defined by their history and inspired by the future.

They always aim to remain true to their heritage but also have ambitious growth plans and a stretching vision to become the most coveted branded spirits company in the world. They know that this will only be achieved with by attracting and retaining the workforce in the industry.

Their Brands

It was the dream of William Grant to make the ‘best dram in the valley’ and five generations later, this still holds true. William Grant & Sons distils some of the world’s leading brands of Scotch whisky, including Glenfiddich®, the world’s favourite single malt, The Balvenie® range of handcrafted single malts and Grant’s®, one of the world’s most loved blended Scotches. In addition, they now have one of Ireland’s finest Irish Whiskeys, Tullamore D.E.W.® and the newest addition to their family, the premium liqueur, Drambuie®.

The company also continues to lead the way in spirits innovation, for example with the delightfully curious Hendrick’s® Gin and our Caribbean spiced rum, Sailor Jerry® Rum. Their award winning portfolio also includes Monkey Shoulder® Triple Malt Whisky, Tequila Milagro and Reyka® Vodka.

Role Purpose

A key and influential and business enabling position on the Global Finance Leadership Team with the responsibility to set global finance policy for the Group, covering overall direction, processes and controls, and systems under the umbrellas of Financial Planning & Analysis and Financial Control & Compliance. Responsible for all aspects of management reporting and financial management information to enable business insight and informed commercial decision-making, as well as reporting and compliance in the areas of statutory reporting, tax, treasury, insurance and pensions.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for establishing global financial control, to ensure that all subsidiaries in the Group have an aligned set of clear financial policies and procedures to follow, operate a robust financial control environment to manage and report transactions, understand and manage risk, and have a known and understood escalation process to follow to highlight any control or compliance issues, or requests for exceptions, to Group Finance.
• Safeguard the assets of the Group through ensuring that balance sheets are appropriately controlled and monitored in compliance with the Global Finance Manual and other relevant policy
• Set and deliver the agenda on Group reporting requirements, tax, treasury and dividend policies, and Payment Practices reporting, ensuring the completion of year end and ongoing statutory financial reporting and compliance.
• Develop and establish reporting tools/KPIs to support the production of financial and non- financial management information to deliver consistent and accurate information for ongoing, monthly and annual historic reporting, and periodic planning purposes.  In particular, ensure that the monthly management accounts are produced in a timely manner, underpinned by systems, processes and controls that enable data integrity and accuracy, and the reporting is an effective tool to enable and facilitate decision-making.
• Effectively lead and deliver global systems and process changes, through the stages from inception of the change to development, testing, training, rollout and post implementation support.
• Lead the process to identify business impacts, articulating these – both benefits and changes – to support the deployment strategy.
• Identify, structure and drive changes across the global business required to optimise the Group’s tax position.
• Ensure the Group has sufficient funding to support the business objectives and operates cash and working capital management in the most efficient and transparent manner, including the identification of potential sources of finance, compliance with financial covenants, and building and maintaining relationships with key providers.
• Structure and manage the global insurance programme.
• Identify and manage financial risk across the business including, where appropriate, the use of insurance to mitigate such risks.
• Actively participate in / provide support to major internal Group / business transaction projects, such as global ERP, Grants Operating Model (GOM), Route to Market expansion, and M&A activity.
• Lead, motivate and develop the Group Finance team in line with the Company Purpose to maximise employee engagement and performance.
• Promote, develop and embed a “one team” approach to Finance in support of the delivery of a Global Finance function.

For further information or a confidential conversation please contact:

Michael Dickson at michael@fwbparkbrown.com

Alternatively, you can contact us by phone on 0131 539 7087

To apply or request a full candidate brochure please enquire / send your CV to enquiries@fwbparkbrown.com