Regional Accountant

Due to our continued growth and success we are looking to appoint an Assistant Commercial Accountant to support the Commercial Finance function within the Wiltshire farm Foods part of the business.

You might be looking for a role where you can grow your skills in a company that will sponsor and support you to gain professional qualifications or you could be looking for an interesting role where professional qualifications are not a requirement. 

This is a really great role to develop your finance business partnering skills. We are looking for somebody with finance business partnering experience who is able to communicate clearly and effectively with non-finance individuals. 

You will be part of a team of 10. Your main responsibilities will be the lead finance business partner for the Wiltshire Farm Foods North region, reporting key financial insight and ensuring clear understanding of financial performance and that accounting processes and controls are enhanced and maintained.

Working hours: Monday - Friday 8:30 - 17:00

This role is based in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

Once trained and competent, you will have the option to work from home up to 2 days per week- subject to business needs.

apetito is the UK’s leading food supplier to the health and social care sectors serving more than 1,300 care homes, health care and education settings. Our meals are expertly crafted by our dieticians and chefs, and then frozen to lock in the goodness. Wiltshire Farm Foods, our sister company, is the UK’s largest ready meal supplier cooking and delivering over 330 different delicious frozen ready meals across the UK.

Responsibilities

• Lead finance business partner for your dedicated Wiltshire Farm Foods region.
  • Lead regional finance reviews at month end and take ownership for reviewing everything that can impact P&L’s.
  • Champion “what can we do tomorrow to make things better?”
  • Prepare material to share on weekly regional meetings – e.g. sales updates for the month so far, debt position and suggestions to improve, reminder on processes.
  • Partner with Regional Manager to understand what would be useful and relevant to support the team’s performance.
• Work closely with the Regional Manager and associated team for your dedicated region providing key commercial acumen with robust support and challenge.
  • Look for opportunities to add value through challenge to all concerned (including but not limited to the Regional Manager, RSOMs, WFF General Manager, WFF support managers, WFF CF team) – sharing observations, opportunities, learnings from other sites.
• Analyse and review financial performance of your region of depots.
  • Look beyond the process – e.g. daily sales, how are sites performing, are they tracking in line with expectations, is there a month end or longer term risk to the result?
  • Have confidence when somebody asks about WFF’s performance, to be able to say how they’ve performed that week, how they’re tracking for the month, with a particular focus on your region.
  • Look at how your region are performing at month end, where are they tracking vs the budget/latest forecast and identify the key opportunities.
• Key involvement in the monthly period end close.
  • Ensure accurate reporting completed in a timely manner.
• Involvement with key projects.
• Ensure strong financial controls are in place including balance sheet reconciliations, identifying key risks and opportunities.
  • Identify and set-up KPI’s and trackers to help management be more proactive – what information could they have to allow them to do their jobs more effectively?
• Maintain regular contact with the depots beyond the month end review.
  • Prepare an appropriate and relevant agenda for mid-month catch ups – e.g. review the forecast in detail, discuss sales performance and where they think they’re going to be for the month, any challenges and anything you can support with.
  • Ask the depots what support they need.
  • Look at labour in detail if this is a challenge for the depot.
  • Ensure there are no surprises.
• Share with the wider apetito organisation.
  • Take opportunities to share what you’re working on, how your region is doing, key projects you are working on.
  • Create opportunities for others to learn from you.
  • Ask for others thoughts/input/guidance to get different perspectives.
  • Understand and share the wider WFF performance, opportunities and challenges.

Please note that there may be occasional travel within the UK to Wiltshire Farm Foods depots.

Essential:

• A minimum of a years’ experience of working in a Finance team / environment or related finance qualification
• Effective communicator- able to convey financial information in a succinct and relevant way to people across the business.
  Proficient with Microsoft Excel
• Confident numerical and analytical skills
• Diligence and attention to detail.
• Understanding of why financial activities are completed, as well as how to complete them
• Flexible and deadline focused
• Organised and able to plan your time effectively.
• Can-do approach.

Desirable:

• Previous experience of SAP and Navision / Dynamics.
• Working towards a finance qualification (AAT/CIMA/ACCA) - sponsorship and support to continue your studies can be provided.

We encourage you to apply even if you are not confident you meet all the essential criteria.

• Competitive salary – accredited Living Wage employer
• 25 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays
• Option to purchase up to 5 additional days annual leave per year
• Discretionary annual bonus scheme
• Pension scheme - employer matched contributions up to 4%
• Life assurance scheme worth at least 1x annual salary
• Subsidised canteen
• Free parking
• Free turkey or voucher at Christmas
• apetito perks scheme including salary sacrifice options and retail discounts

As a family-owned business, we take great pride in being a company that makes a real difference and is dedicated to creating outstanding meals to be proud of.

We develop a range of products designed to enhance health and well-being for all our customers.

We are driven by a passion for service, and dedicated to feeding some of the UK’s most vulnerable people.

We proudly support British food and farming, focusing on using the best ethical and sustainable produce in alignment with our goal to reach Net Zero by 2040.

Our ethical standards are recognised by the ETI and we are an accredited Living Wage employer.
Learn more about apetito’s commitment to a more sustainable future.

We embrace inclusion, empowering individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Our commitment to making a real difference extends to customers, communities, and staff and we're on a mission to build an inclusive workplace where everyone reaches their full potential.