As a key member of our Commercial Finance team, you’ll be providing insightful analysis and meaningful recommendations that help drive business performance and support strategic decision-making. Working across our Specialist Business units, you’ll partner with a variety of stakeholders, delivering high-quality financial insight that enables the business to achieve its objectives and identify new opportunities for growth.

You’ll be responsible for producing regular financial reporting, including weekly performance dashboards, management information, KPIs and commercial analysis. By interpreting financial and operational data, you will provide clear commentary on current business performance, highlighting trends, risks and opportunities. A strong focus of the role will be on continuously improving and automating reporting processes, ensuring stakeholders have access to accurate, timely and actionable information.

You’ll analyse period-end results, providing detailed insight into PTD and YTD performance against budget and forecast. You’ll review monthly management accounts to ensure accuracy and consistency, while helping to maintain a single source of truth across multiple data systems. Where applicable, you’ll also evaluate the effectiveness of retail offers and promotions, assessing their impact on membership conversion and commercial performance.

This role will provide you with the opportunity to contribute to key planning activities, including quarterly forecasts, annual budgeting and long-term strategic planning. You’ll support the delivery of business initiatives through financial modelling, performance tracking and the identification of key risks and opportunities, helping to shape future strategy and investment decisions.

Alongside your regular responsibilities, you’ll provide financial support for a range of ad hoc projects and work collaboratively with our Finance Managers to deliver commercial insight, continuous improvement and outstanding financial support to the wider business.

We are looking for someone who is either a professionally qualified Accountant (ACCA/ACA/CIMA) or who is working towards the completion of their qualification.

Bringing a strong commercial and financial acumen, you’ll be confident in your ability to develop an understanding of the key drivers of the business area.

Essential to this role will be your advanced excel skills together with your experience in manipulating large data quantities.

You’ll feel comfortable in challenging current practice and processes with a drive for continuous improvement.

As well as being able to work collaboratively with both cross functional and finance colleagues, you’ll also demonstrate the ability to work independently, using your own initiative, as well as demonstrating a proactive approach to issue resolution.

Due to the nature of this role, it will be essential that you can bring strong organisation skills and time management skills and be confident in your ability to deliver to deadlines.

Preferably, you’ll bring experience of forecasting and modelling using excel or other bespoke systems.

Everyone is welcome here We’re happy to make reasonable adjustments so that all our candidates can show us how they’ll perform their role. There is a section in the application form where you can provide any additional information. Please use this section to include any reasonable adjustments you need, and we’ll do our best to support you through our recruitment process

What benefits are available to you?

In addition to our competitive salaries, our colleagues also benefit from:

Reward and Benefits

• Fantastic colleague discount - Reward ££’s and discounts across our Retail and Funeral businesses.
• Retail discounts- our hub offers colleagues access to hundreds of exclusive retail discounts, savings on days out and holiday discounts.
• Colleague Dividend- We pay a share of our profits to eligible colleagues as a thank you for their contribution to our success.
• Colleague recognition- we celebrate our colleague’s achievements both personally and professionally
• Personalised learning and development- with easy access to a wide range of training programmes
• Paid time for volunteering- we encourage our colleagues to spend three days per year taking part in volunteering, fully paid for by us.
• Enhanced family friendly policies- to help you feel fully supported during any significant life events.

   

  Wellbeing

• Annual health check kit and virtual GP – Finger prick blood test kit, that is sent to Square Healthcare for your personal healthcare report, and access to a virtual GP 7 days a week 8am to 8pm for you and your family.
• Colleague assistance programme – to support you and your family when you need it the most.
• Healthcare Cashplan- your wellbeing is important, so you’ve got the opportunity to contribute into a voluntary plan that helps pay towards a range of healthcare expenses.
• Company sick pay – We offer company sick pay to colleagues so that you can focus on getting better and returning to work in full health.
• Life Assurance- after an initial qualifying period, you’ll get free life assurance cover, that pays your nominated beneficiary if you die while you’re working for us.
• We’ve got you – our colleague wellbeing campaign, making wellbeing benefits and resources accessible and relevant to the role that you do.
• Give as you earn- helping you support charities which mean something to you.

   

  Financial Wellbeing

• iTrent Financial Wellbeing (Wagestream)- offers something for all our colleagues, whether you want to track your finances, save some money, or access up to 50% of your earned pay flexibly in a way that suits you.
• The Money Co-op – Free access to support all aspects of your financial wellbeing, such as savings and loans at competitive rates.
• Salary Sacrifice schemes:
  • Electric Vehicle scheme – Option to purchase your EV through salary sacrifice
  • Share Incentive Plan (SIP) – option to buy shares within the Society, where they will attract interest and £10 worth of matching shares.
  • Cycle to Work scheme – Option to purchase your bicycle and accessories through salary sacrifice
  • Holiday buy- colleagues can buy up to a week extra of annual leave each year
• Company Pension- you can access a company pension scheme with us as well as access to Pension wellbeing information.
• Nous – smart assistant that can save you money and time on managing your household bills.

To find out more about all of these plus many more reasons to join us, please visit Rewards and benefits - Central Coop (careers.coop)

OurCoop is the UK’s largest independent co-operative Society, with more than one million Members and 13,000 colleagues operating in communities nationwide. It was formed by bringing together Central Co-op, The Midcounties Co-operative and Chelmsford Star Co-op to create a stronger, member-owned organisation rooted in shared co-operative values.

The Society trades nationally through its family of businesses while remaining deeply rooted in local communities. Its footprint spans Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Bedfordshire in the South and West; the Midlands including Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire; the North including Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire; and the East of England, including Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.

OurCoop and its family of businesses are trading names of Central England Co-operative Limited.