Chief Financial Officer (2022)

Chief Financial Officer (2022)

Fast growing FMCG business in the wider Southwest area, £80m t/o with plans to engage in M&A activity in the next 3-5 years, and potential exit.

THE BRIEF

Our brief was to find a Chief Financial Officer with significant M&A expertise, a solid background in FMCG manufacturing and a great ‘person’ fit for the culture of the business. Our client had experienced phenomenal growth in the past 2 years and needed a commercially minded financial expertise to help with significant further growth.

The business therefore needed to appoint an individual who could bring an increased level of rigour, discipline and commercial focus, without diluting the entrepreneurial approach, which had originally made the business successful.

THE PROCESS

We met with the Managing Director and HR Lead of the business to understand the in-depth brief for this position, the strategic business plan, the leadership team dynamic and the culture of the business.

King Executive compiled a detailed briefing pack for candidates, assessment criteria and provision of psychometric testing. We mapped the whole of the UK talent market, producing a long-list for our client, giving them full visibility on our selection and working together to narrow the list of potential CFO’s.

One of the main challenges, was the Southwest salary/package offering versus the UK marketplace as a whole, and therefore more competitive offerings from larger FMCG manufacturing businesses. Coupled with this, the requirement to be visible within the business throughout the week was a deal breaker for many.

Despite this, a rigorous and tenacious approach ensured that we arrived at a highly suitable short-list of 4 candidates for consideration. The King Executive Method, our bespoke 4-step leadership assessment programme was applied to the search to ensure rigour in our approach.

THE RESULT

Following a 3-stage interview process, the favoured candidate was selected to meet the Chairman and Board members for a presentation and cultural assessment. The successful candidate was universally liked by the whole senior leadership team, as well as demonstrating sound financial acumen and a solid background in the FMCG sector.

The whole process from start to finish was fairly rapid and took 8 weeks.