Commercial Finance Manager at RCL Foods

Minimum Requirements    
Qualifications & Experience:

• BCom coupled with CA (SA) or CGMA/CIMA qualification (non-negotiable)
• Experience working for a manufacturing plant within the commercial/costing/operational finance space
• Be an innovative, confident, and creative thinker with the ability to make quick decisions
• Proven ability to influence and build collaborative relationships with a wide range of stakeholders
• Track record of managing cross-functional teams
• Extremely proficient in Excel and Microsoft applications including PowerPoint, PowerPivot, PowerBi
• SAP/Syspro experience is preferable
• Skillset and attributes required:
• Ability to manage a team and stakeholders in a matrix organization
• Eager & determined individual to get to the bottom of and resolve issues
• A project manager mindset, being able to handle numerous profitability/costing projects at one time and being flexible with the type of work you are involved in.
• Patience to work through complex technical issues as well as understand an operating unit’s needs, to keep on asking until you get to a clear understanding that can be simply communicated to others
• Ability to identify and investigate issues and provide commercial insights for continuous improvements
• Acting as a trusted business advisor to the broader commercial team and Managing Executives, including providing a clear point of view, demonstrating forward-thinking, risk analysis, and challenging existing ways of doing things
• Identify areas of improvement by uncovering the root cause and developing processes to ensure continuous improvement and overall effectiveness
• Basic awareness of different cultures and working practices across operating units

Duties & Responsibilities    
Key Accountabilities

• Provide commercial support and insight into the operations and performance of the Business Unit.
• Collaborate with operational, front-end teams, functional heads of department, and executives to understand business requirements and commercial costing needs.
• Responsible for profitability reporting, pricing, and costing analysis for all the operating units within the Business unit
• Managing the price increases processes and compiling insightful customer presentations
• Managing cost and management accounting teams as well as BI and profitability systems/models
• Analyze the financial performance of the BU and make recommendations based on the findings and outcomes of the analysis.

Management Reporting

• Profitability reporting, pricing, and costing analysis for all the operating units within the Business unit
• Provide insightful reporting and interpret the impact of key cost drivers on profitability, including best-in-class initiatives

Customer Pricing Support

• Provide prompt and accurate pricing information for price negotiations.
• Ensure product and channel profitability objectives are achieved.
• Provide continuous pricing support regarding profitability to ensure that products are sold at targeted margins.
• Drive commercial conversations with and answer related queries from customers.

NPD and Costing Process

• Managing the continuous costing process for new product development or changes to existing products/manufacturing processes
• Evaluating the impact on pricing and profitability of any NPD and/or change to offerings
• Take part in BOM audits, process audits, price recovery assessments as well as costing equipment impact assessments to reduce yield/usage variances
• Ensure that profitability models/system(s) inputs (i.e. perform calculations, understand routings) are maintained by teams on a daily/weekly/monthly basis

Pricing and Profitability analysis

• Running and compiling periodic price increase models and presentations
• Ensure pricing strategy is executed as per plan and conduct post-implementation reviews
• Provide inputs into the improvements and maintenance of contribution margins through volume mix, pricing, promotional activity decisions, and cost saving initiatives
• Provide calculations, detailed analysis, and associated recommendations emanating from any initiatives that arise through cost-saving initiatives, changes in business operations, BOM/product offering changes that potentially might offer more profitable solutions
• Daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly profitability and deep dive reporting across all operating units
• Provide profitability insights and recommendations.

New Project/initiatives Appraisal and Feasibility Assessment

• Drive the appraisal and commercial feasibility assessment of new projects and initiatives identified by the business, technical, and marketing teams.
• Ensure projects are costed accurately and ROI principles are achieved
• Conduct post-launch reviews to ensure committed return hurdles are achieved
• Capital investment appraisal for profit-enhancing initiatives

Business Plan Process and Forecasting

• Coordination of the annual 5-year business valuations, business plan, and quarterly forecasting processes in accordance with the national time scheduling and guidelines.
• Compile and review results of the business plan and sales forecasting processes, including volume and distribution revenue analysis.
• Provide insight and interpret the impact of key cost drivers on profitability.
• Interpretation of the final outcome of the business plan and forecasts ensuring that it reflects the strategic objectives of the business and initiating changes where necessary.
• Compiling strat plan, business plan, and forecasts presentations

Information and Data Management and Business Analytics

• The individual will be the custodian of profitability systems, BI models, and profitability methodology across the baking unit.
• Responsible for accuracy, completeness, and relevance of data and analytics from the profitability systems and/or models.
• Ensure team members accurately and regularly capture data onto the information system to enable access to reliable data and reporting for trend analysis and decision making.
• Weekly/daily running of raw material usage and ingredient variance tools by the team in order to reduce stock variances.
• Share relevant and insightful data with management teams to enable reliable business decision-making.
• Design and development of Dashboard, profitability reporting tools, and ad-hoc reporting