Head of Financial Control

About Menzies:

In September 2018 Endless LLP, the private equity investor, acquired Menzies Distribution as part of the business’s separation from John Menzies PLC. The newly independent company outlined at that time how it would develop the business through widening its service offering and geographical coverage.

Since then, Menzies Distribution operates from more than 100 sites across the UK and Ireland, distributing over 29.5 million units across its network every week, to more than 30,000 locations each day, including newspapers and magazines, retail stock, healthcare consumables and parcel delivery services. Employing almost 5,000 people and operating with over 4,200 vehicle assets, the Menzies Distribution Group now has annual revenues of £1.25bn

Menzies Distribution Group consists of 3 Divisions:

1. Newstrade: Delivering 4 million newspapers and 2 million magazines 364 days a year to 25,000 retailers across the UK & Ireland. (Revenue of £885million per annum) and,
2. Express: Delivering 60,000 parcels a day to the high street, healthcare providers and consumers. (Revenue of £150million per annum) and,
3. MDS: Delivering full load transport and warehouse services to the paper, packaging and consumer retail markets. (Revenue of £210million per annum).

These divisions have been built through organic and acquisitive growth and in the past 2 years Menzies have made 4 acquisitions. The most recent, JBT Distribution, was the fourth announcement of strategic importance made by Menzies in six months and accelerated the significant momentum already seen in the Group’s recent progress. In December 2020, Menzies sealed a transformational deal combining two of the UK’s major logistics businesses when it acquired Bibby Distribution, now Menzies Distribution Solutions, unlocking geographic potential for Menzies while adding 38 new operating sites and a large, young fleet to the well-established Menzies platform. In January 2021, former Asda CEO Andy Clarke was appointed as Non-Executive Chairman. In May 2021, former Booker CEO Charles Wilson joined as a Non-Executive Director and new significant investor.

About The Opportunity:

• To lead all elements of the financial control and master data functions within Menzies Distribution Limited, having overall responsibility for the performance and outputs of a wider team of 76 colleagues via 4 direct reports, 3 of whom are fully qualified accountants.
• Lead the development, implementation and compliance of the Group’s Financial Policies and Procedures across the UK & Ireland
• The individual should be a hands-on leader, able to communicate at all levels of the business to ensure the rigour and discipline required to deliver cost control and financial governance throughout the Group.
• The individual should have proven experience of managing a business through significant change.
• Manage banking, auditor and tax relationships on a transactional level.
• Prepare the statutory accounts of the Group and its subsidiary companies on an annual basis.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

PEOPLE:

• Full responsibility for the management and output of 76 people within the Financial Control team across the Group.
• Objective setting – define and agree Key Result Areas (KRAs), timelines and Annual Performance Goals for the Financial Control team aligned to Group Strategy
• Managing – team structure, allocation of work, planning, motivating, coaching and review. Quality, accuracy & timeliness of output is critical to success in role.
• Assessing – review/measure performance against KRAs and Performance Goals by regular 1:1 meetings, identify training needs and support required
• Recruitment of, Training & Development of team to increase their knowledge and efficiency. Authorise relevant training from internal/external sources.

CUSTOMER:

• Responsibility for the provision and quality of weekly, monthly and ad-hoc management information to Directors, Senior Management, Banks, Shareholders, Credit Agencies and any  other approved stakeholder across the 3 divisions within the Group.
• Manage relationship with, and provide timely and accurate reporting to, CFO.
• Responsible for assisting the CFO with regards to any financial due diligence relating to potential acquisitions, including responsibility for assessing risks, controls and synergies.

PROCESS:

• Responsible for key accounting functions of “General Ledger”, “Order to cash”, “Purchase to Pay” and “Stock & Margin control” functions within Menzies Distribution Limited and all its subsidiaries.
• Responsible for key MasterData functions covering all customers (approx. 20,000) and live materials (approx. 6,000)
• Responsible for monthly IFRS reporting of financial results within a 5-day close.
• Responsible for all External Audit and Internal Finance matters and for coordinating the resolution of all follow up points arising from those audits. A fully clean audit output is the  expectation for each financial year.
• Responsible for all compliance with UK and Ireland Tax authorities (corporation tax, VAT, employee taxes, capital gains and share reporting).
• Maintain both the Group risk and CCO tax risk registers and continually review the adequacy & effectiveness of all key controls to mitigate such risks. Monitor and review the selfcertification of the implementation and completion of all controls by the financial managers on a monthly basis requirement with regards to financial controls.
• Responsible for effective cash collection (£100m per month) from approx. 20,000 customers across the UK and Ireland, ranging from multiple retailers and large businesses through to small independent retailers.
• Responsible for driving optimal cash management procedures, including appropriate governance with commercial colleagues.
• Responsible for a robust purchase to pay process, including training to all depots and nonfinance colleagues, relating to all supplier payments (c£80m – c£90m per month).
• Responsible for ensuring the business maintains robust reporting and transactional controls for all stock processes averaging between £12m-£15m at any given time.
• Responsible for finance integration of new acquisitions into one recognised central ERP system.
• Design, implement and maintain automated processes, dashboards and reports using reporting applications interfaced with SAP. Identify improvements to remove as many manual processes as possible across each financial cycle.
• Other adhoc project work as required by senior management and Board of Directors.

To apply, please send your CV and covering letter to Michael Dickson at applications@fwbparkbrown.com or contact him on 0131 539 7087 for a confidential discussion.