Lead - Financial Planning & Analysis - International Brands

Key Responsibility Areas

A. Management Reporting & MIS

• Prepare and publish the monthly, quarterly and annual MIS pack within the agreed calendar - P&L, channel and brand performance, store-level profitability, cost analysis and KPI dashboards.
• Own the daily and weekly sales flash and its reconciliation to the closed month; ensure there is no reporting surprise between flash and actuals.
• Prepare business review decks for management, brand partners and the board; own the storyline, not just the schedules.
• Ensure a single version of truth - one definition, one number, one source, across every report issued by the function.

B. Budgeting & Forecasting

• Drive the Annual Operating Plan - coordinate with functions, retail, marketing, supply chain and HR to build a bottom-up plan for revenue, gross margin, opex and headcount.
• Prepare rolling forecasts and re-forecasts; quantify the impact of trading trends, new store additions, closures and cost movements on the full-year landing.
• Build and maintain the financial model for the business, including scenario and sensitivity analysis on discounting, footfall, conversion and cost inflation.

C. Performance & Variance Analysis

• Analyse actual vs. budget vs. prior year at every relevant cut - channel, category, store - and explain why the variance arose, not merely its quantum.
• Track and interpret retail KPIs: LTL / SSSG, ASP, ABV, UPT, conversion, footfall, sell-through, GMROF, GMROI, discount percentage and marketing ROI.
• Analyse the fixed and variable cost structure; monitor cost lines against plan and support cost reduction initiatives with baselines, tracking and validated savings.
• Support store-level profitability reviews and provide the analytics behind open, continue or exit decisions.

D. Working Capital & Cash

• Prepare cash flow forecasts and monitor actuals against them.
• Track inventory ageing, cover, provisioning and liquidation performance; flag risk early.
• Monitor debtor and creditor ageing and the resulting impact on the working capital cycle.

E. Process & Automation

• Automate recurring reports; move the function from manual compilation toward dashboarded, self-serve reporting.
• Improve data integrity at source in coordination with IT and the various ERP teams.
• Benchmark performance against competitors and published industry data.

Required Skills