The Company

Cala Group is a major UK housebuilder and leading provider of desirable new homes across the South of England, the Midlands and Scotland. Cala operates through eight businesses across the UK.

Founded in 1875 as the City of Aberdeen Land Association, Cala has a long history in successful land management before beginning house building in the 1970s. Today Cala is passionate about creating vibrant and sustainable new communities. Our homes are characterised by exceptional design and sector-leading build quality, and we have a passion for providing our customers with a great home-buying experience.

Cala has been recognised through numerous industry awards and holds the maximum five-star rating in the Home Builders Federation’s National New Home Customer Satisfaction survey.

In 2018, the previous co-owner, Legal & General, acquired full ownership of Cala. Legal & General has been involved in housing for nearly 20 years and has a multi-tenure housing strategy, which Cala is now part of. The additional investment illustrates Legal & General’s confidence in Cala’s potential and provides a strong platform for continued growth.

The Role

The Finance Manager role is based in the Head Office at Mid New Cultins in Edinburgh, which is close to the end of the M8 motorway. Reporting to the Regional Finance Director, this is a multifaceted role incorporating a blend of accounting, commercial decision support and key stakeholder management. This role involves significant interaction with internal business areas including Sales, Commercial, Land, Construction and Customer Services.

The Finance Manager is a pivotal position in the finance structure and will be highly visible across the business. Cala represents an excellent opportunity for an ambitious finance professional having displayed an impressive growth in turnover in recent years. With a great deal of autonomy and responsibility as Finance Manager, this position within Cala will provide an excellent career platform with good opportunities for personal development.

• Assist with the preparation of four-year forecasts for the region three times a year. This will involve working with the local board of directors to produce robust yet challenging targets for the region. Support and mentoring will be provided by the Regional Finance Director
• Prepare, on a monthly basis, projections of current year profit for the region
• Prepare, on a monthly basis, projections of the cash required by the region for the next six months
• Build strong relationships with the region’s management team and staff members to ensure a constant flow of information
• Involvement in the production of monthly regional management accounts including journal postings, accruals, cost of sales, cash flow, variance analysis and associated commentary
• Implement ‘best in practice’ financial processes and procedures appropriate to the needs of the business, delivering a continuous improvement approach
• Involvement in identifying and implementing process improvements across the finance department
• Ensure a culture of commercial awareness is promoted and maintained across the company through effective business support
• Liaise with non-finance internal stakeholders and provide high-quality MI, budgetary support and key financial analysis
• Review and approve weekly cash flow reports
• Review and approve bi-monthly supplier payment runs
• Ensure all balance sheet controls are in place and a monthly control file is maintained
• Provide a year-end pack to Group for statutory accounts consolidation and liaise with external auditors regarding any accounting queries
• Ensure compliance with regulations including VAT, SDLT and relevant accounting standards
• Work with other members of the accounts department to ensure a good service is received by the region
• Work flexibly between the head office and the regional office
• Hybrid / flexible working

The Individual

The Finance Manager position incorporates a blend of accounting and stakeholder Management, requiring a high calibre individual who is strong interpersonally, well organised, detail conscious and possesses excellent technical skills. A background in house building or construction would be useful, but more important is that the individual is experienced in the accounting, commercial and operational requirements of a growing, dynamic business.

This role is aimed at a professionally qualified accountant with relevant post-qualification experience. The ideal candidate will have a keen eye for driving process improvements and developing good working relationships across the business.

It is critical that the Finance Manager can work closely with the Regional Finance Director and the region's management team. In particular, it is crucial they take responsibility for the function and possess sufficient gravitas to challenge current thinking and drive positive change.

• An experienced, commercially qualified finance professional with a proven track record of success in a similar, challenging role
• Degree educated
• CA / ACA qualified and trained in an accountancy practice ideally
• Alternatively, trained CIMA or ACCA within an industry environment
• Commercial acumen and an understanding of key business drivers are essential to the role
• Confident communicator with strong interpersonal skills
• Attention to detail
• Exceptional administrative and organisational skills
• Self-motivated with a ‘can do’ attitude’
• Flexible with regards to daily workload and able to work on a variety of ad hoc projects
• Ability to explain financial metrics / concepts to other functional managers
• Ability to work with tight deadlines
• Ability to prioritise workload
• Ability to work as part of a team and have skills to influence others
• Competent PC skills, including MS Word, Excel, Outlook

Remuneration

In addition to a very attractive basic salary (details available on application), there is a car allowance (£6,500), pension scheme with employer contributions up to 10%, attractive bonus potential up to 22.5% of salary and 34 days holiday inclusive of public holiday.

What to do Next

To find out more or see a full Position Profile, please contact Cala's retained advisor, Will Dodds at Rutherford Cross - [email protected].

Please note that any direct or third-party approaches will be sent to Rutherford Cross for review and assessment.