The Company

ALS is building the UK’s leading dental manufacturing business. It was created in 2019 by Ansor LLP partners Peter Strafford and Peter Marson. They identified that the dental laboratory industry was on the cusp of transformation with the potential to improve products and solutions for dentists and patients whilst delivering significant growth and value by building a large dental laboratory group.

Dental manufacturing is undergoing a rapid transformation from a fragmented industry of small laboratories staffed by experienced dental technicians making crowns, bridges, and other dental products by hand to a world of digital workflows and large-scale automated production involving intra-oral scanning, 3D printing and robotics.

ALS’s goal is to build the UK’s leading, most innovative and technologically advanced dental manufacturing group, positively disrupting the industry and advancing its capability by integrating progressive businesses, advanced technologies and skilled people.

ALS’ 2022 budget for existing businesses is £3.6m EBITDA and it is targeting £28m EBITDA by 2025 in its base case plan.  The company is currently expanding to have nationwide UK coverage and plans to enter the international laboratory market. ALS is on the acquisition trail, having grown from start-up at the end of 2019, to currently 15 laboratories, through a mixture of acquisition and organic growth in the Crown and Bridge, and Orthodontic segments. ALS has a strong pipeline of future acquisitions and new products that will continue to drive the rapid expansion and development of the group. It’s very much an exciting time to be joining the business.

The business is led by CEO Tom Lavery, formerly Managing Director and Chairman of Johnson & Johnson Medical UK & Ireland and Kenny Burns, CFO.

More information on ALS can be found on their website:  https://als-dental.com/ and across their different digital channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter.

The Role

Job Title:                     Commercial Analyst

Reports to:                  David Kerr, Group Financial Controller

Location:                     Glasgow (Hybrid & Flexible) with UK Travel Requirement

As ALS continues its growth, acquiring more labs across the UK, they have identified the need to appoint a Commercial Analyst. The primary responsibility of this role is to assist in obtaining high quality commercial data from dental laboratories within the ALS network to assist management in decisions around sales pricing and gross margin improvement projects. In keeping with the expanding profile of the group - the ability to question, challenge and flex with change are also vital. As a result of joining the company at such an exciting stage in its journey, the expectation is that the role evolves with time as the company does.

Key Priorities of the Role Include:

• Collect and analyse data to estimate the time, cost, materials and labour incurred across our range of products
• Complete product costing analysis for each dental laboratory in the ALS network as well as new laboratories as and when required
• Work with dental lab leaders to develop and deliver gross margin improvement plans
• Quantify gross margins at a product and customer level for the ALS Dental laboratories
• Maintain monthly revenue and margin reporting; identify trends and variances
• Perform sales price benchmarking by product across the ALS dental laboratory network
• Assist in the development of an ALS wide consolidated sales pricing structure
• Play a key role in the development of a new product costing system over time
• Assist in margin analysis for ad hoc commercial projects and business cases for capital investment
• Support with other ad-hoc projects across the wider finance team

The Individual

Ideally, for this position we are looking for a qualified accountant with post-qualification experience preferably in a manufacturing business. Qualified by experience accountants with significant cost accounting or margin analysis exposure will also be considered.

Essential Experience & Knowledge:

• Qualified Accountant (ACCA, CIMA, ICAS)
• Experience of product costing and gross margin analysis in a manufacturing environment
• Strong reporting skills with ability to collect, organise and analyse significant amounts of data from multiple sources
• Strong Excel skills – confident user of Vlookups & pivots
• Experience of working in a group environment is desirable
• Sage 50/200 experience beneficial

Key Attributes and Behaviours:

• Pragmatic and approachable in nature
• Self-motivated and capable of developing the role over time
• Has the ability to form strong working relationships remotely across multiple sites
• Flexibility to plan and prioritise a diverse workload
• Attention to detail
• A desire to challenge and improve processes
• The role will involve some UK domestic travel on a relatively frequent basis

Remuneration

An attractive package is on offer commensurate with background and experience required for the role.

For more information on remuneration please contact Jonathan Donnelly at Rutherford Cross.

The Recruitment Process

• First stage interviews will be conducted by retained consultant, Jonathan Donnelly of Rutherford Cross. Selected professionals will then be presented to ALS for consideration
• Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview with David Kerr, Group Financial Controller and Kenny Burns, CFO. Subsequent stages will be communicated by Rutherford Cross throughout the process
• All third-party applications, enquiries and direct approaches to the company will be referred to Rutherford Cross