The Company:

Baxters Food Group is a fourth generation privately owned entrepreneurial business which specialises in the manufacturing of premium quality, primarily branded, food products. The Group's product range includes soup, beetroot, chutney, condiments, preserves and meal options.

Since Baxters began operation in 1868 a lot has changed, but their dedication to making only the best quality products has always been at the core of everything they do. The Baxters brand has grown from a humble village store to a global brand with a turnover of circa £450m.

With the sheer scale of operation, Baxters now has sites based throughout the UK and food manufacturing operations in the USA, Australia, and Poland. The science and technology that underlies their process today may be far removed from the little village shop that started it all in Fochabers, but the ethos remains the same - “Be different, be better”.

Baxters now finds their product being sold in major supermarket chains such as Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and many more, which has contributed to the large-scale growth of the business. Baxters’ Head Quarters is situated just off Charlotte Square in Edinburgh and oversees the UK & European operation based in Fochabers.

The Role:

Reporting Directly to the European Head of Commercial Finance, this is a critical position which will have important stakeholder management responsibilities across the wider European Business, working in partnership with the European Marketing, European Sales and Business Unit Leaders to drive commercial performance of each business unit.

This role requires the individual to establish and maintain strong working relationships with all of these parties, including two-way information flows.

The role will provide strong direction to ensure Baxters maximise profit by controlling costs, ensuring the best mix of promotional activity and securing the best return for new and extended distribution.

• Support the Sales Team (predominately Multiples) to ensure profit is maximised in each customer by challenging plans, providing insightful analysis and reporting including the period end commercial reports
• Work with the Sales team to create Joint Business Plan Models for agreement with the customers (understanding Baxters and the customer’s profit) and measure progress to plan
• Provide commercial support for and assessment of new products
• Ensure effective management of promotional accruals, ensuring integrity of accounts at all times
• Facilitate the forecasting process for defined customers, ensuring volume forecast and associated gross margin reports are circulated in advance of monthly reviews and ensuring appropriate challenge of the numbers
• Facilitate the annual budget process for defined customers, ensuring the necessary models for planning are available, timetable achieved and inputs challenged
• Manage allocated projects within the Commercial Finance team and wider Finance team
• Facilitate adherence to Finance Process Controls
• Support the Marketing team with spend requests and controlling expenditure
• Support, drive and implement systems development within commercial finance

The Individual:

• Part qualified or qualified CIMA or ACCA
• Commercial Finance experience gained within a FMCG company preferred
• Strong commercial acumen with absolute focus on profit delivery
• Resilient character with ability to challenge and deal effectively with strong personalities internally and externally
• Confident and effective communicator at all levels with credibility to meet directly with customers
• Self- motivated with a proven track record of delivery under pressure and to specific deadlines
• Strong excel skills, able to demonstrate experience with pivot tables and lookups

Remuneration:

• Attractive package commensurate with background and experience required for the role

What to do Next:

• To find out more on remuneration, the role or to see a full Position Profile, please contact their retained advisor, William Dodds at Rutherford Cross
• Please note that any direct or third party approaches will be sent to Rutherford Cross for review and assessment