Finance Manager (5-month fixed-term contract)

The L'OCCITANE Group is a global, natural and organic ingredient-based cosmetics and well-being products maker, producer and retailer. The Group is built on strong values of entrepreneurship, team work, respect and authenticity. It is committed to developing products that are environmentally friendly and sustainable.

The Group has eight brands: L'OCCITANE en Provence, Melvita, Erborian, L'OCCITANE au Brésil, LimeLife, Elemis, Sol de Janeiro and Grown Alchemist.

With a presence in 90 countries, our products are distributing in more than 3,000 stores in the world.

L'OCCITANE Group's mission is to "empower entrepreneurs and communities to cultivate natural beauty and well-being and regenerate nature". L'OCCITANE is also committed to sustainability for business, people & the planet, as well as respect of human rights, ethics principles and labour protection. All employees at L'OCCITANE must therefore implement the company's mission and integrate the social, environmental, economic and legal effects of their actions in their day-to-day job. In practice, this means that any employee at L'OCCITANE shall contribute to growing sales, regenerating nature, caring for our consumers & partners and supporting our employees.

CONTEXT & MISSION:
We are looking for a highly motivated Finance Manager to join our Erborian Finance Team for a 5-month fixed-term contract!

In this role, you will:

• Drive planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting activities to enable effective Erborian performance management and timely decision making;
• Prepare all financial reporting for Erborian brand monitoring and Group consolidation purposes. You will provide commentary along with all reports, forecasts and budget to ensure proper understanding of the numbers, their drivers, the major risks and opportunities;
• Supervise Erborian Brand Controller and Cost Controller;
• Manage Erborian products performance optimization and risk mitigation for the brand;
• Implements process to support Erborian business objectives delivery and to mitigate business risk (monitoring tools, controls, budget process, etc.);
• Ensure financial structure is organized in compliance with international tax rules and with group tax structure.

The position is based in Plan-Les-Ouates (near Geneva) and reports to the Deputy General Manager Erborian.

MAIN RESPONSABILITIES:
1) Global Erborian budget controlling

• Coordinate budget and reforecasts process for all Erborian entities with local controller;
• Organize meeting with main countries to monitor results for each budget and reforecasts;
• Perform and communicate monthly analysis of results with variance explanations to Management;
• Follow up action plan to monitor financial performance, benchmarks between countries or between brands;
• Evaluates ROI on main operations;
• Follow KPI (reporting financial KPI, product performance KPI, ect.).

2) International cost controlling

• Responsible for international costs entities closing and budget animation: 2 legal entities (France & Korea), budget cost center;
• Supervise Erborian Cost Controller;
• Provide leadership and guidance to external accountant for the 2 legal entities;
• Ensure that the 2 legal entities are closed following group rules: accounting rules, consolidation planning;
• Organize audit with external auditor;
• Manage budget and reforecast process for Erborian cost center with budget owner within Erborian team or within Group structure;
• Perform and communicate monthly analysis of results with variance explanations to Management;
• Ensure intercompany flow are communicated and recorded clearly and that process are optimized;
• Ensure tax markup are appropriately recorded and followed group rules, that tax optimization is reviewed with group tax department and that contracts are updated appropriately with Group Legal department;
• Support the development of controlling procedures (in cooperation with the accounting department and operational teams): purchase orders, capex expenditures, rebilling, etc.

3) Business controlling

• Manage the budget and reforecast process for Erborian digital business (net sales per client - support with price positioning and commercial conditions set up, margin calculation, operating expenses related to their entities business (marketing expenses, CAPEX investments);
• Strong involvement in monthly closing: overall review of P&L vs budget/reforecast, accrual review and follow-up, communication to the accounting department of specific entries that must be booked, gross margin and operating profit analysis;
• Perform and communicate monthly analysis of results with variance explanations to Management;
• Support the development of controlling procedures (in cooperation with the accounting department and operational teams): purchase orders, capex expenditures, rebilling, etc.
• Maintain the database of clients' information (commercial conditions, FX issues, etc.).

4) Erborian Brand controlling

• Supervise Erborian Brand Controller;
• Ensure Erborian products performance optimization and risk mitigation for the brand;
• Ensure Erborian brand product strategy is declined into margin, cost and price structure, margin objectives by products category, into country price positioning, into product portfolio performance, launch performance;
• Ensure Erborian inventory management is optimized: supervision inventory risk provision, E&O actions plan monitoring with Erborian Operations Manager, end of life optimization, relaunch optimization.

HOW YOU CAN FIT:

• Master's Degree in Business, Finance or related discipline;
• +8 years' experience in Finance with proven track record in a similar role in the FMCG industry;
• Hands-on experience on accounting operations and month end closing;
• Fluent in French and English;
• Excellent MS office skills with advanced Microsoft Excel;
• Experience with SAP and TM1 Cognos (or any equivalent of reporting and forecasting tool) is a real plus;
• First management experience is a real plus;
• Reliable, rigorous with excellent analytical and organizational skills;
• High level of autonomy, ownership and critical thinking;
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to work closely with multiple departments;
• Business acumen and open mindedness;
• At ease in an international fast-paced environment with remote & multicultural teams.

STARTING DATE : May 2023
FIXED-TERM CONTRACT: 5 months