Job Title
Assistant Control Accountant
Name:
Matthew Chandler
Company:
Nestlé UK Ltd
Professional Qualification(s):
AS Levels in Maths, Geography, 10 GCSE’s, NVQ in Business, AAT Member & CIMA Member
Brief overview of your job:
The control department facilitates all the finance information between factories, other divisions and our head office in Croydon. Working closely with the Mancom (Management Committee) and the Finance Director.
What does your job involve?
- Managing the monthly bookclose process for the division.• Gathering, calculating and reporting on the main growth indicators. Actual reporting and forecasting on a weekly basis (sometimes daily).
- Managing various cost centres around the business.
- Involvement in the annual budget, Market Business Strategy (3 year long term planning) and Dynamic Forecasting (18 month forward planning).
- Contact for divisional finance on specialist areas such as commodity buying.
- I’m on the “Finance Vision” implementation team. The Vision is the shape of the finance function in the future to provide a world-class financial service to the business.
- I’m the finance correspondent for the divisional magazine.
- All finance training is done in house, so I teach several courses to non-finance business managers.
What do you most like about your job?
- The variety of work available, one minute you’re looking at what happened on a specific day, the next you’re planning 3 years ahead.
- The Nestle Rowntree culture is great, all ideas are listened to and programs are in place all over the business to encourage people to think creatively and share innovative ideas. It really gives you a sense of belonging.
- The scope this position offers is immense, you deal with details on an individual brand/factory, and then the whole division and you also get involved with work between divisions and reporting to our Swiss parent.
- The company believes in Finance competent business managers, so you get the opportunity to share what you know and help others make a financial impact.
What skills are required in your job?
- You need to be able to adapt quickly and think on your feet, jobs and questions will come in from many people in lots of different areas.
- You also need to be precise and accurate, dealing in millions of pounds most of the time means a small mistake can be big £’s!!
- You need to be able to communicate with different people throughout the business, from a lower level person in supply chain or sales to the Finance Director or Managing Director of the UK.
- You need to work at a high level all the time; you tend to get bogged down in the details. So you need to always consider the bigger picture both internally and externally. Is what you’re doing adding anything to the bottom line?
What is your advice to people looking for a career in the food & grocery industry?
- Experience helps but as in any job a keen interest and inquisitive nature can overcome this.
- Knowledge of the major supermarkets always helps; they’re such a big factor in any company these days they should always be considered.
- It helps to have an interest in the specific area of the industry you might be working. To have no interest in confectionery products would put me at a disadvantage working for Nestle, you should always be thinking around the consumer and the market as a whole.
See the job description for Assistant Control Accountant.