Finance Business Partner

About Asahi Canada

Asahi Canada’s vision is to become an International Premium Beer powerhouse. We will achieve this by leveraging our strengths and existing success models, and by applying a challenger mind-set to everything we do.

Asahi Canada's collection of premium beers each tell their own brand story and share a passion for craftsmanship, authenticity and using only the finest ingredients.

Our iconic premium beers include Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Grolsch Premium Pilsner, Asahi Super Dry, Pilsner Urquell, Meantime London Pale Ale, Fuller’s London Pride, Tyskie, Kozel, Lech and Zubr.

Asahi Group Holdings (our global parent company) is the third largest beer company in the world based on market capitalisation.

Asahi Canada is a big bet market and reports into EMEAA which is part of Asahi Europe and International. However, Asahi Canada broadly operates on a stand-alone basis.

At Asahi Canada, we have a clear mandate to strengthen our position by establishing a leading premium presence. The expectations are that Asahi Canada is among the leaders in global growth within Asahi Group Holdings.

Asahi Canada has an ambitious, high-performance culture. It seeks people with entrepreneurial mindsets that thrive in fast paced, market facing environments.

It offers talented individuals a unique opportunity to work in world-class teams while assuming high levels of personal accountability to deliver on the company’s mission.

Finance Business Partner

As a key member of the in-country Finance Team, the Finance Business Partner is tasked with supporting strategic business decision making and the delivery of Asahi Canada’s strategic and financial objectives.

This role supports both the commercial partnerships within the business and the supply chain function and is expected to build and sustain trusted relationships with these teams.

The role is responsible for developing commercial and revenue management capabilities with the sales function dedicated to our key partnerships within Canada and primarily Quebec, ultimately aiming to support decision making to maximise value chains with our partners.

The role will manage the budget and forecasting process for these key partnerships, and supports the creation and review of forecasts, business cases for trade spend and new listings as well as monthly, quarterly and annual reporting.

Ensures deliverables are on time, accurate and contain the right level of detail to allow for clear and simple decision making.

The role is also responsible for supporting the supply chain team in ensuring correct cost allocations and reviewing costs versus budgets, aiming to maximise the efficiency of spend and support the understanding of drivers of the cost base.

Key Responsibilities

1. Commercial Finance

• First point of contact for all finance related questions for the relevant directors, appropriately managing stakeholders and supporting them with financial analysis and decision making.
• Value chain development for key partnerships
• Provides the commercial and supply chain team with strong financial support through the full commercial planning life cycle e.

g. annual Budget process, monthly budget / forecast to actual and other ad-hoc requests as required.

• Supporting a thorough analysis and evaluation of plans, budgets and forecasts, ensuring the most profitable allocation of resources through providing financial insights and constructive challenge.
• Numeration of the demand planning outputs related to key partnerships.
• Supporting the creation of and challenging business cases for new product listings and promotional spend in Quebec.
• Provide financial oversight to supply chain processes, educating the function on financial impact of ways of working
• Owning supply chain cost forecasts and reviewing variances on a regular basis, working with the supply chain team to ensure cost allocations support insightful profitability analysis and spend is managed efficiently throughout the business

2. Performance Measurement and Reporting

• Review monthly profitability reporting by province, brand and SKU.
• Prepare Month End reports complete with variance analysis that demonstrates a deep understanding of the drivers of the financial results.
• Preparation of finance budget schedules including P&Ls and profit analysis.
• Review of fixed cost base with key team members to ensure costs are managed efficiently, managing monthly reporting and preparing budgets
• Ad-hoc reporting to meet the needs of the business.
• Ownership of financial inputs from key partners that allow for efficient monthly reporting and understanding of progress towards targets
• Review inventory balances and ensure working capital is being managed efficiently

Key Capabilities Required

• Qualified Accountant, University Degree.
• 5-7 years’ relevant experience, including within Commercial Finance roles (financial accounting, management accounting, reporting, budgeting, forecasting and cash flow management)
• English and French language required
• Previous FMCG experience would be an advantage
• Experience of working with a supply chain function would be an advantage
• Understanding of working with external parties, distributors, and JV partners will be a critical asset
• Ability to interface and influence across multiple organisational levels, especially key business stakeholders.
• A keen eye for detail with the preparation of complex monthly reports and review of information from partners needing to ensure accuracy of inputs
• Comfortable within a fast moving, challenging and deadline driven corporate environment
• Excellent MS-office knowledge especially MS Excel (large data sets, pivot tables, macros etc.) and PowerPoint.
• Experience of SAP Business One would be an advantage.
• Experience in working effectively with teams based across different geographies and time zones.

ASAHI BEHAVIOURS strong individually , stronger together

Committed we do what we say we will do

Cooperative we are stronger when we work together

Curious we are open minded and discover better ways

Bold we are clear and decisive in whatever we do

Empowering I bring out the best in my people

We are committed to nurturing a workplace where we celebrate and respect difference, and support everyone to be true to who they are!

At Asahi we believe you can SHINE AS YOU ARE - no matter your age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities, religion, or beliefs.

We want to support you to be courageous in your individuality and to know that whoever you are and whatever your circumstances, you can belong with us without having to conform.

Asahi Canada welcomes applications from people with disabilities and will make accommodations, upon request, for any part of our selection process.

We appreciate and review all applications but only contact those applicants who best fit our requirements.