Commercial Controller

Role Introduction:

Established in 1992, Applegreen is a leading convenience roadside retailer in the Republic of Ireland, the UK and the US in both large-scale Motorway Service Areas and Travel Plazas, as well as smaller petrol stations. The business has grown to over €3BN in annual revenue, operating 600 Motorway Service Plazas and forecourt sites internationally and employing over 16,000 people.

Applegreen is seeking to recruit a Commercial Controller ROI, who can thrive in a scaling organisation and can lead and drive financial business analysis and insight.

This is an exciting opportunity for the right candidate to excel by working in the commercial front of our Irish business. The successful candidate will be a confident people person who can fit into Applegreen seamlessly and adopt a hands-on approach to their role.

This is very much a hand’s on and broad role and will cover all aspects of the ROI Operations. As such candidates need to be comfortable working with multiple stakeholders over all aspects of the business. Report directly to Finance Director Retail Operations, ROI. The position has 2 direct reports.

Key Responsibilities:

As Applegreen expands, the responsibilities will evolve and change over time. The core responsibilities will centre around the following areas:

Strategic Planning, Budgets & Reforecasts

• Lead the preparation of annual budgets and monthly reforecasts considering relevant activity data, cost information, sales, margins and service developments and working with business managers to establish budgetary submissions for ROI.
• Manage the rolling monthly reforecast process with Finance Director and managers ensuring that opportunities and risks are captured and managed during the year.
• Lead the preparation and presentation of the 5-year strategic plan keeping it updated with new pipeline site developments.
• Manage capex and cashflow forecast inputs for Budget process and monthly reforecast.
• Lead the rollout of integrated planning tool Oracle EPM to support initially budgeting and also monthly forecast process.

Commercial Business Decision Support

• Lead the analysis of financial and business data with the team create financial business and performance models for decision support both weekly and monthly ensuring key KPI’s are tracked accurately and reported timely to support business decisions.
• Develop robust revenue, margin, costs, investment plans in conjunction with business managers ensuring that opportunities are explored, and risks/opportunities are captured and quantified.
• Report on business and financial performance across Retail Operations, Dealer and Commercial Fuels and support regular leadership reviews.
• Analyse past results, perform variance analysis, identify trends, and make recommendations for improvements.
• Lead the team business partnering with the Trading Director and Finance Director the tracking of Supplier Contract completion and tracking of all ancillary income and collection and optimisation.
• Work closely with the Retail and Financial Controller to ensure accurate financial reporting and decision support particularly around site margins.
• Support deep dive analysis on margins versus budget and forecast assumptions.
• Recommend actions by analysing and interpreting data within the business on trends and leverage external inputs and sources to drive business decision making and performance.
• Support the review of under performing sites and plans to mitigate potential impacts.
• Lead cost review and analysis to support reducing operational costs, supporting with the wider divisional leadership teams

Business and Investment Cases

• Lead the preparation of investment cases for ROI Operations and lead submission and review of business cases to the Group Head of FP&A and work with business managers to ensure successful delivery of Investment Committee Proposals
• Evaluate financial performance by comparing and analysing actual results with plans and business cases.
• Track performance of investments against planned performance and make recommendations for review.
• Maintain a strong financial analysis foundation creating forecasts and models as required to support business cases.

Operational Reporting & Insight

• Lead preparation of the monthly business review meetings review slides for business partners and managers supported by consolidation tool Oracle EPM
• Support provision of inputs for Monthly divisional reporting for Blackstone working with Group Head of FP&A
• Lead operational reporting, and operational metrics tracking as required for all aspects of ROI Operations including payroll, supplier income and KPI’s
• Identify and drive process improvements, including the creation of standard and ad-hoc reports, tools, PowerBI reports using a unified data platform and excel dashboards.
• Lead the investigation of significant budgetary variances with the Retail Financial Controller, identifying any remedial action that needs to be taken.
• Perform market research, data mining, business intelligence, and valuation assesments as required
• Provide analysis of trends and forecasts and recommend actions for optimisation Working with the financial controllership team and Finance Director.

General

• The Commercial Controller will be responsible for managing their own workload in order to lead the Commercial Insight and financial reporting for Operations ROI and guide the budget holders in meeting their objectives.
• The level of detail of the work required will need to be assessed taking into account quality of information and timeliness.
• Lead the team to ensure they are fully supporting the business, adequately trained and familiar with business systems and ways of working.
• Assist in developing training programme for non-finance managers to improve commercial and financial skills.
• Contributes to the overall business success of Operations ROI.

The Candidate should have the following:

Qualifications, experience & skills

• An accountancy qualification (ACA, CIMA or ACCA) with significant PQE in a similar role.
• High proficiency in all Microsoft Office software also essential (Excel, PPT)
• Strong academics, business related Degree an advantage.
• Experience working with an outsource provider preferred
• SAP experience preferred
• Experience in a high-volume retail environment preferred
• Experience in a PLC environment preferred

Additional key skills & attributes:

• A dynamic individual who adapts well to change and can thrive in a rapidly growing organisation that continues to evolve.
• Proven track record of delivering to tight deadlines.
• A highly organised individual with ability to plan and prioritise workloads effectively for maximum impact and adapt around changing priorities as required.
• Ability to execute directly at high quality and pace.
• Excellent drive, enthusiasm and commitment and a keen interest in developing a career in Applegreen.
• A ‘can do’ attitude and a positive solution focused mindset.
• Demonstrate strong analytical capability to interpret and challenge data and to interrogate financial systems.
• Has strong commercial acumen and a focus on delivering value to the business.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills, and ability to engage and develop relationships with individuals at all levels of the organisation.
• Be a self-starter and also be able to work collaboratively as a member of a highly interdependent team across many parts of Applegreen.
• Is resilient and calm under pressure.
• Has sound judgement and objective logical decision-making skills.
• Has strong leadership potential and management skills, who will be a role model for the people and culture at Applegreen.
• Willing to travel ad hoc if required.

Illustrative Application & Screening Process (subject to change):

Application Process:

• Please submit an up to date tailored CV (max 2 pages) and cover letter

Interview & Selection Process:

• Up to Two interview rounds may be required for this role