Financial Planning and Analysis Manager

About the Company

Lagardère Travel Retail is a global leader in travel retailing, providing innovative commercial solutions in airports, railway stations, and other travel environments.

Role Overview

This role entails leading the company’s annual budgeting and bi-annual forecasting processes, ensuring alignment with group strategies and delivering critical financial insights to senior management.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate and consolidate budget submissions across business units, ensuring adherence to group directives and strategic goals.
• Prepare detailed budget documentation and build comprehensive presentations explaining financial analyses, key assumptions, risk factors, and strategic suggestions for senior leaders.
• Manage operating cash flow forecasts, recognize potential financial risks or shortfalls, and develop mitigation strategies.
• Conduct scenario analyses and sensitivity models to assist decision-making processes.
• Analyze weekly sales trends by business line and correlate with airport and port traffic; highlight significant variances and propose corrective actions.
• Supervise monthly variance analysis comparing actual results against budgets, forecasts, and the previous year's figures for profit and loss and balance sheet items.
• Review and critique financial commentary from analysts to ensure clarity, precision, and timely insights.
• Oversee monthly cash flow and capital expenditure forecasts, comparing them against approved budgets and reporting major variances and risks to the CFO.
• Present monthly financial performance, working capital details including free cash flow, and key financial indicators to CFO and CEO.
• Lead the creation of Business Review Meeting materials and provide detailed performance commentary to the Regional COO highlighting critical drivers, risks, and action plans.
• Manage inventory planning and restocking strategies to optimize stock levels and decrease markdown risks.
• Monitor product sell-through rates, stock aging, exit plans, and margin performances at various levels.
• Ensure strict monitoring and control of capital expenditures, IT operating expenses, marketing costs, and other operational expenditures against budgets, driving corrective measures where necessary.
• Champion initiatives for optimizing working capital including inventory, payables, and receivables.
• Collaborate closely with Commercial, Operations, and Supply Chain teams to validate demand forecasts, promo plans, and supply strategies.
• Perform financial assessments of new or renewed network proposals and other business development projects.
• Support vendor business reviews through financial insights and performance evaluations.
• Critically assess commercial proposals to safeguard financial soundness and minimize risks.
• Strengthen financial controls related to budgeting, forecasting, stock reconciliation, and reporting procedures.
• Advance reporting automation and the development of dashboards utilizing BI/BW tools.
• Maintain data integrity across financial and operational reporting systems.
• Create and standardize templates to fulfill group reporting requirements.
• Lead and mentor FP&A analysts delivering high-quality outputs and fostering their professional growth.
• Set clear performance goals and cultivate a culture emphasizing analytical rigor and accountability.
• Allocate workloads effectively to meet deadlines and adapt to business priorities.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or related field; professional certifications such as CA or CPA are preferred.
• Between six and eight years of pertinent experience in Financial Planning & Analysis within sectors such as retail, travel retail, F&B, or trading.

Essential Skills

• Extensive knowledge of budgeting, forecasting, cash flow management, and variance analysis involving P&L and balance sheet accounts.
• Proven skills in managing inventory performance, tracking capital expenditures, and optimizing working capital.
• Capability to connect operational KPIs like sales, traffic, and sell-through rates with financial results, delivering actionable conclusions.
• Strong analytical and financial modeling aptitude, experienced in scenario analysis and preparing reports for executive audiences.
• Experience in managing analysts and collaborating effectively with Commercial, Operations, and Senior Leadership teams.

Additional Information

The company is dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusivity throughout the recruitment process.