Company Description
Amber Taverns, operates 185 high quality community, wet-led pubs throughout the UK, with its accounting head office based in Blackpool, Lancashire.
Amber’s estate comprises well invested pubs and is uniquely focused on the hybrid “operator-managed” business model. Amber’s pubs are entirely wet-led, which enables Amber to provide best-in-class value for money drink offering together with strong sport and live entertainment. Characteristically located in smaller and medium-sized regional towns, rather than large, principal UK cities, Amber pubs strive to be best in class in their local market.
The business was acquired by Epiris, a leading private equity company, in October 2024. Having demonstrated a consistent growth trajectory over many years, the new investment provided by Epiris, is expected to lead to a new exciting growth phase, with ambitions to grow to over 250 pubs, and to reach new locations outside its tradition Northern heartlands. Planned changes to the senior leadership team following Epiris’ investment have resulted in the previous CEO taking the position of Non-Executive Chairman with the recruitment of both a new CEO and CFO – both of which have multiple years’ leadership experience in the hospitality sector.
Role Description
Following the introduction of the new leadership team at Amber Taverns the business has identified a significant opportunity to develop its commercial analysis to enhance future profitability and is now recruiting this new role of FP&A Manager. Currently, Amber Taverns have limited internal reporting capability, but this needs to change in order that as the business grows, we have more insight to improve operational and strategic decisions making.
Working under the guidance of the CFO, this role will consolidate existing reporting responsibilities, whilst identifying new opportunities to provide the business with insightful financial analysis. In particular, we see this role as working very closely with our operations team to drive effective decision-making.
Key Responsibilities
§ Custodian of the annual planning and budgeting process. Own the annual, Pub budget process, liaising with operations on site sales, gross margin and discretionary cost budgets
§ Preparation of weekly and monthly operational reports and Key Performance Indicators (“KPI’s”), for example weekly sales reports and monthly operations reports to present and highlight key performance trends
§ Develop a framework, and be the custodian for, quarterly reforecasting within the business
§ Develop a report to monitor capital expenditure for new site acquisitions, refurbishment of existing sites and for maintenance capital including post investment appraisal
§ Become the Finance Team expert for reporting from key systems, such as zonal, and take ownership of any databases, datawarehouse or excel reports/models that are used/developed for the purpose of reporting
§ Support the Operations Director and Regional Managers through providing a suite of insightful weekly and monthly reports
§ Assist the CFO and CEO with any ad-hoc reporting, analysis, projects or planning that may be required from time to time
Qualifications
§ CIMA, ACCA or ACA qualified accountant
§ Experienced individual with minimum 3 years post qualification experience
§ Previous experience of working in an FP&A environment is a prerequisite and being able to demonstrate experience of supporting operation teams would be a distinct advantage
§ Previous experience of working in the Hospitality or Leisure business would be beneficial
§ Advanced excel skills are essential (and will need to be demonstrated), and the use of Datawarehouse reporting, Excel Add-ins, and other accounting/reporting software is desirable
§ You will need to be able to think and act independently (being a self-starter is essential) whilst aligning your values to the wider finance team and business
§ You will be accurate and have great attention to detail
§ You will be able to demonstrate good organisational skills and the ability to work to tight timescales
§ You need to possess good communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to confidently explain financial information to non-financial personnel to support decision making
§ The ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate an ethic of delivering high performance through hard work, commitment and teamwork