Role Summary:
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) will lead the company’s financial strategy, governance, compliance, and commercial decision-making across the UK and EU entities. This role is responsible for driving profitable growth, ensuring robust financial management, and maintaining the highest standards of regulatory and stakeholder compliance. The CFO will provide strategic leadership to the finance function, oversee operational financial performance, and act as a key advisor to the CEO and Board.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Strategic and Commercial Leadership
- Develop and execute a comprehensive financial strategy aligned with the company’s short-, medium-, and long-term objectives.
- Partner with the CEO and senior leadership team on strategic initiatives, including market expansion, category development, and negotiations with major customers and business partners.
- Lead financial modelling and analysis to support commercial decisions related to new territories, licences, retailer partnerships, and investment cases.
- Build and maintain medium- to long-term financial plans that reflect the company’s vision and strategic priorities.
- Evaluate the financial implications of exclusive retail agreements, marketplace structures, discount frameworks, and distributor arrangements.
Financial Management
- Oversee full P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow performance, ensuring accuracy, insight, and timely reporting to the Board and financial institutions.
- Lead the forecasting, budgeting, and scenario-planning processes, with monthly updates aligned to trading conditions.
- Manage royalty reporting, payments, and internal control systems to ensure complete and timely compliance.
- Oversee FX exposure and hedging strategies to protect profitability.
- Deliver structured board packs including KPIs, variance analysis, risk assessments, and recommended actions.
- Maintain robust financial controls, including approval workflows across expenditure, investments, and product development.
- Mitigate financial risks across debtors (AR), creditors (AP), inventory, and transactional processes.
Compliance and Governance
- Ensure compliance with UK and EU accounting standards, tax regulations, statutory reporting, and audit requirements.
- Maintain audit-ready internal controls capable of withstanding licensor and external audits.
- Manage VAT obligations, cross-border transactional compliance, and transfer pricing frameworks.
- Monitor and enforce adherence to all financial obligations within licensing agreements.
- Provide transparent and consistent reporting to the Board, shareholders, and licensors.
Operational Leadership
- Lead, mentor, and develop the finance team, fostering a high-performance culture with clear objectives and development pathways.
- Establish and refine processes across management accounts, AR, AP, payment cycles, and financial controls.
- Implement and oversee financial systems and interfaces with ERP, WMS, B2B, and B2C platforms. • Supervise credit control functions to mitigate retailer payment delays.
- Manage relationships with auditors, banks, tax advisors, licensors, and other financial partners.
Risk Management and Growth Enablement
- Identify and mitigate financial and commercial risks, including FX volatility, credit risk, minimum guarantees, royalty compliance, and customer concentration.
- Stress-test business plans against multiple downside scenarios.
- Lead financial evaluation of M&A opportunities and licence acquisitions through detailed due diligence and modelling.
- Drive operational efficiency across logistics, supply chain, and overheads while safeguarding brand investment.
Communication and Influence
- Serve as a key leader in monitoring margins, operating expenses, and cash management.
- Communicate financial insights clearly to non-finance stakeholders, enabling informed decision-making.
- Manage shareholder expectations with transparency and a solutions-focused approach.
- Collaborate closely with Commercial, Creative, Operations, and Marketing teams to ensure alignment of financial decisions with brand and growth strategies.
Key Deliverables & KPIs
- On-time delivery of monthly management accounts and quarterly board packs.
- Accurate variance reporting with clear explanations and actionable recommendations.
- Zero late royalty payments and no licensor disputes.
- Working capital metrics maintained within agreed thresholds.
- Delivery of EBITDA and gross margin performance aligned to budget and forecast.
- Clean audit outcomes and positive feedback from external stakeholders.
Qualifications, Experience & Skills:
- Must be a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA / ACCA / CIMA).
- Minimum 5 years of post-qualification experience, including at least 2 years in a senior finance leadership role or reporting directly to a Board.
- Experience within branded sportswear, casualwear, lifestyle products, or similar consumer categories is highly advantageous.
- Preferably based in the United Kingdom, ideally in or near London or Watford, with the ability to travel within Europe to oversee subsidiaries.
Excellent Salary plus Bonus and Executive perks
