Senior Finance Manager
Alghanim Industries
Total years of experience :16 years, 0 Months
Alghanim Industries has a heritage of over 100 years with businesses interests in Automotive, Engineering, Industrial, Food & Beverage, Retail & Financial Services in the Gulf region. Alghanim Industries is a multi-national company with operations in 40 countries, more than 30 businesses, 300 brands and 14, 000 employees.
Food & Beverage division has 3 brands Costa Coffee, Wendy's Burgers & Slim Chickens. Job responsibilities as Senior Finance Manager included:-
• Controllership function for F&B Division comprising, accounting, reporting, budgeting, working capital management and IT upgrade rollout.
• Business Partnering with CFO / COO / Business Heads to support on key Business Decisions.
• Work closely with all Business Departments (Procurement / Marketing / IT /HR) to ensure smooth functioning and operations for F&B Division and achievement of Business Targets.
• Site feasibility /Budgeting / Forecasting / Cash Flow / MIS / Balance Score Card / AP / AR.
• Review ROI in marketing programs, Key pricing decisions and new product launches.
• Review margins at store and overall levels to ensure they are in line with various business decisions taken. Take corrective actions including expiry management to protect margins.
• Limited production and presentation of monthly & quarterly reports to ensure they are delivered accurately and in a timely manner for review at top most management levels.
• Provide leadership in the development for the continuous evaluation of short and long-term strategic financial objectives.
• Identify opportunities for cost reduction through continuous monitoring for input product cost price movement and negotiations with vendors.
• Establish SOP’s for operation and transaction processes impacting the store operations and financial statements.
• Design and implement various financial control systems and assist in developing best business practices and SOP’s.
• Drives linkage of operating and accounting processes, procedures and transactions.
• Control and validate all financial documents sent to Centralized Office (GL / Asset).
M.H. Alshaya Co. is a leading international franchise operator for over 70 of the world's most recognized retail brands including Starbucks, H&M, Mothercare, Debenhams, American Eagle Outfitters, P.F. Chang's, The Cheesecake Factory, Shake Shack, Victoria's Secret, Boots, Pottery Barn, West Elm and KidZania operating through over 3, 500 stores. Alshaya's stores can be found in markets across the Middle East and North Africa, Russia, Turkey and Europe and the company employs more than 55, 000 people. I am working here as Business Finance Manager for Food &Home Furnishings Division. The job responsibility includes:-
• Preparation of annual Business Plan of brands / division based on detailed analysis of previous, current and forecasted business performance for all countries in close coordination with Brand / Division Head. Ensure that the budgets are realistic, stretched and reflect actual business potentials.
• Prepare monthly rolling forecast for the rest of the year based on actual performance against budget and key market trends / brand trends.
• Review and report monthly performance against budget and forecast. Identify key variances and reasons for such variances.
• Primary day-to-day responsibility for planning, implementing, managing and controlling all financial related activities of the Division. Develop the financial well- being of the division by connecting financial results with operating performance and initiating plans for value enhancement.
• Undertake cost benefit analysis for marketing campaigns and other various business decisions.
• Provide the financial reporting for all operating stores in various markets towards improving profitability and cost control contributing to overall profitability.
• Prepare strategic business plan for the division which includes short &long term developments, investments for growth.
Food Division
• Financial, commercial and operational support for Casual Dining and Food Retail divisions across MENA, over 27 brands and 300 stores.
• Review cross brand delivery business spread across Kuwait and UAE. Explore opportunities and key challenges in rolling out more brands under food delivery.
• Analyze food cost by brand and product pricing along with cost control team.
• Coordinate with operations team to analyze store labour composition to maximize productivity.
• Track efficiency of supply chain in effective servicing of stores in terms of availability and minimizing food expiry cost.
• Monitor and measure supply chain initiatives to reduce/ maintain cost of food stock and non-stock purchases.
• Support business for financial analysis and set up for new brand roll out.
Home Furnishings Division
• Manage a reliable cash flow forecast / projection based on stock management based around managing stock levels, stock covers and open to buy and intake forecasts.
• Review stock ageing to minimize obsolescence and reduction in warehousing cost.
• Co-ordinate with operations team to set up optimal store staffing.
• Identify key KPI's, set up dashboards for regular circulation and discussion with key stakeholders.
• Drive store incentive and loyalty programs to increase sales performance and customer following.
• Evaluate and support setting up of e-commerce business, spread across MENA, Turkey and Russia.
• Prepare 5 years strategic plan by providing sufficient reliable financial information & analysis as necessary, to enable senior management to make sound decisions related to existing operations as well as new investments in order to achieve growth and ROI.
Landmark Group, Dubai is a retail giant in the Middle East specializing in retailing and hospitality havingits spread over the entire Middle East and India. I have worked here as Finance Manager - Corporate in Hospitality Division which is into business of Food, Hotels, Fitness Clubs, Children Play Zones, Healthcare Clinics and Spa reporting to Chief Operating Officer. The job responsibility included:-
• Providing consolidated MIS every month with executive summary, variance analysis& key observations.
• Preparation of consolidated Monthly Sales Reports for entire hospitality division.
• Scrutinizing Profit & Loss account and performance of all outlets and exception reporting.
• Preparation of dashboards and presentations for Quarterly reviews of Hospitality Division.
• Attending Business review meetings of individual businesses.
• Review of Consolidated Cash flow statement and vetting capital expenditures for each concept.
• Project appraisal using RoI and payback analysis for new stores launches.
• Co-ordination with statutory auditors for annual audit.
The Group is one of the oldest corporate houses from Karnataka, India having business interests in Renewal Power Generation, Industrial Gases, Development of Business Parks, Manufacturing Refractories and Stevedoring Services. The group is also setting up an Edible Oil refining facility in Australia and has also acquired a Coal Mine in Indonesia. I was working here as Finance Manager reporting to Chairman and Managing Director. The job responsibility included:-
• Reviewing the actual performance against budgets and reporting variances for all group companies.
• Reviewing the monthly forecast of each of group companies vis a vis budget and business outlook as projected by each of the businesses.
• Analyse and interpret various economic and operational data of other companies in similar businesses from various sources for a comparative analysis.
• Manage Treasury operations at the group level for optimal utilization of funds.
• Raising of funds from banks and financial institutions.
• Complete responsibility of Holding Companies of the Group which included accounting, banking, interaction with Auditors, legal and statutory compliances and Income Tax Assessments.
• Responsible for raising funds for capitalizing foreign entities and business, all statutory compliances in their local countries of incorporation and also with authorities in India.
• Corporate restructuring and Company Law matters involving capital reduction, incorporation of new companies in India and overseas.
• Working on new investment proposals that arise in form of acquisitions of existing businesses using various models such as DCF, IRR & NPV.
• Part of core group looking into new acquisitions and setting up green field project.
The Company is a leading player in Global IT Services in Europe operating from 41 countries with employee strength of over 41, 000. I was employed as Senior Financial Analyst reporting to Business Development Director in UK and Finance Director in Netherlands. Of the total period served, initial 10 months I was in the captive BPO of the company. The job responsibility included:-
• Financial Analysis & Reporting for Business Development Stream of the Company and Netherlands Country operations.
• Preparation of Annual Budget and Monthly rolling forecast by working closely with Service Delivery Managers and Stream and County Heads.
• Monthly Review and analysis of Budgets vs Forecast vs Actuals, and understanding and highlighting key variances and there financial effects.
• Preparation of Financial Status reports at individual project level and discuss with Project Managers on various aspects like revenue, margins, costs overruns and actuals vis a vis budgets.
• Spoc for all financial matters in the Business Units & provide proactively accurate and timely information to the Operations managers on the operational & capital expenditures.
• Work closely with the Bid teams for new bids and provide meaningful and accurate financial inputs to Business and Administration team.
• Financial review of investment decisions of new business cases for strategic decision making.
• Conducting Process Audit of various processes i.e. Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, General Financial Accounting, Fixed Assets, Project Expenses to check the process flow and discrepancies.
• Recommending changes in the Process Documents based on findings of the Financial Process Team.
• Inter Company Reconciliations between various entities.
• Balance Sheet Account Reconciliations and clearing open items.
The company is one of the leading Refractory manufacturers in India also having manufacturing facilities in China, USA and Australia. Worked here as Deputy Manager (Finance & Audit) reporting to Chairman and Managing Director. The job responsibility included:-
• Planning and conducting Internal Audit and circulating Audit report to all stakeholders with findings and also presenting the it for review at the Internal Audit Committee meetings. One of the major findings resulted in savings of approx Rs 1.2 Crores annually for the company.
• Identify, drive and implementation of measures of cost reduction and production efficiency.
• Product pricing for new orders and bidding in open tenders.
• Monthly analysis of actual to budget and analysing the variances on a timely and accurate basis for month end reporting, analyze trending for remaining months of the year.
• Preparation and analysis of weekly contribution and monthly & YTD profitability.
• Preparation of Business & Financial plans by interacting with cross functional departments for inputs which involved preparation of budgeted operating plans, financial statements and cash flow statements.
• Support for annual audit and matters related to Finance, Accounting and working capital management.