Group Financial Controller

Who we are and what we do

About Hachette UK

Hachette UK is a creative powerhouse and the UK's second largest book publishing group. Our mission is to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity.

We're made up of 12 autonomous publishing divisions and over 60 imprints with a rich and diverse history and an incredible range of authors. We're also the market leader in e-books and publish a range of bestsellers in audio format, the fastest growing part of our business.

Our award-winning adult publishing divisions are Orion, which won Publisher of the Year at the 2021 British Book Awards; Little, Brown; John Murray Press; Hodder & Stoughton; Headline; Quercus; Octopus, Bookouture and Dialogue Books. They publish fiction and non-fiction in digital, audio and print format, from the world's best and most diverse authors, including Brit Bennett, Candice Carty-Williams, Martina Cole, Michael Connelly, John Grisham, Stephen King, Stieg Larsson, Nelson Mandela, Stephenie Meyer, Maggie O'Farrell, Delia Owens, Ian Rankin, J.K. Rowling, Colson Whitehead, and Malala Yousafzai. Hachette Children's Group publishes a wide and vibrant range of books for children across all age ranges, while Hodder Education is a market leader in resources for both primary and secondary schools.

Hachette UK is part of Hachette Livre, the world's third largest trade and educational publisher. As well as our headquarters in Carmelite House, London, and our state-of-the-art book distribution centre in Didcot, Oxfordshire, we have recently opened five new offices in Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield, Newcastle, and Edinburgh. The UK region also includes offices in Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, the Caribbean, and Ireland.

It's an exciting time to join our business because the publishing market continues to grow and thrive. The UK remains the largest exporter of physical books in the world and book adaptations for film and TV are the foundation of the UK's creative industries.

What you'll be doing

Responsible for all group reporting and compliance, you will work closely with the Group Accounting Director, the Group Finance Director, as well as the divisional Finance Directors, both in the UK and in our overseas divisions.

You will manage a team of 4, made up of two Group Accountants and two Assistant Financial Accountants. You will work with this team to ensure timely and accurate reporting of our weekly sales reporting, monthly group management accounts, creating the financials that are used by the UK Board, and reporting the group's financials to our French parent company, to a strict and tight month end timetable.

You will work closely with and liaise with our group audit firm, as well as our external tax advisors, as needed, supporting the Group Accounting Director.

This role is responsible for ensuring our VAT reporting is managed and executed, adhering to local VAT requirements across our various VAT returns, covering Ireland, France, Germany and of course the UK.

Another key task includes producing our annual financial statements, in accordance with the relevant accounting standards. You will be responsible for ensuring these are completed to our internal deadlines, working closely with our external auditors and with the Group Finance Director.

Who we are looking for

You will bring a depth of knowledge and a broad skillset to this role, ideally coming from a Group environment and used to working within a matrixed organisation. You will have proven experience running consolidations and used to working within tight reporting deadlines.

IFRS, UK GAAP, FRS101 knowledge are essential to the role with proven experience in managing and owning VAT Returns.

Excellent stakeholder management and team management skills are essential to this role, and you’ll enjoy engaging with and motivating your team who are eager to learn and develop their own careers.

You will need strong IT skills, with an advanced level of Excel (SAP experience is beneficial).

What we offer

Our staff are our greatest asset, and our benefits reflect this:

• 28 annual leave days per year, increases to 29 days after 2 years' service and goes up to 30 days after 5 years' (+ bank holidays)
• Private medical insurance
• Generous pension schemes
• Rent deposit loans
• 2 community days per year
• Summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays during the summer months)
• Retail discounts through Hachette rewards
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Eye care vouchers
• Wide-ranging training library
• Development programmes (including mentoring)
• Up to 70% off book purchases
• A charity bookshelf
• 12 Staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, including Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing and religious networks
• Season ticket loans
• And much more!

The role will be based at our Didcot office, HHC, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.

Our commitment

Hachette employs people on the basis of their abilities. We aim to attract and develop talent from a base as broad as the world of readers we want to reach, with a wide and representative range of age, faith, disability, race, gender, sexuality and socio-economic, regional and cultural backgrounds.

If you are shortlisted and need us to make any adjustments to help you attend for interview, please let us know.

The Book Trade Charity offers financial support to people looking to enter the book trade but who may struggle to afford the costs of attending interviews and undertaking junior roles. For more information visit www.booktradeentrysupport.org