Finance Business Partner

Role Purpose:

The Finance Business Partner (FBP) for Logistics & Supply Chain serves as a strategic advisor to the Operations, Logistics, Procurement, and Supply Chain teams. The role is responsible for driving financial performance, enabling data-driven decision-making, and ensuring strong financial governance across the end-to-end value chain.

This role translates operational activities into financial insights, identifies performance improvement opportunities, and supports cost optimisation while ensuring alignment to business objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Focus Area 1: Financial Planning & Analysis

• Lead financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting for Logistics, Warehousing, Transport, and Supply Chain cost centres.
• Develop and maintain cost-to-serve models, scenario analysis, and profitability assessments.
• Track performance against budget and provide actionable variance analysis with clear operational drivers.

Focus Area 2: Business Partnering & Decision Support

• Serve as the key financial advisor to Supply Chain, Logistics, and Operations leadership teams.
• Provide insights into route-to-market efficiency, freight & distribution costs, procurement spend, inventory management, and service-level trade-offs.
• Support business cases for capital investments (fleet, warehouse capex, automation, systems).
• Drive continuous improvement by identifying inefficiencies, margin opportunities, and operating model enhancements.

Focus Area 2: Operational Finance & Governance

• Oversee financial controls, compliance, and risk management within supply chain processes.
• Validate and challenge costing methodologies, logistics contracts, and supplier performance metrics.
• Ensure adherence to procurement policies, inventory controls, and financial governance frameworks.

Focus Area 3: Performance Reporting

• Develop and deliver high-impact monthly reports and dashboards for senior leadership.
• Provide insights into KPIs including:
• Cost per case / Cost per litre
• Distribution & route efficiency
• Inventory turnover and working capital
• Warehousing utilisation & operational throughput
• Procurement savings and contract performance
• Present findings to executive committees, operations reviews, and cross-functional forums.

Focus Area 4: Strategic Projects & Change Initiatives

• Support transformation and optimisation projects including network redesign, warehouse automation, digital supply chain tools, and procurement savings programmes.
• Lead finance workstreams in cross-functional initiatives ensuring alignment to business strategy.
• Collaborate with BI, IT, and Operations to enhance data integrity and implement advanced analytics.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field.
• Professional qualification certifications: CIMA, ACCA, or CA(SA); CA(SA) advantageous
• 5+ years' experience in Finance, with at least 2–3 years in Logistics, Supply Chain, FMCG, Manufacturing, or Distribution environments.
• Strong understanding of supply chain cost structures, logistics operations, and procurement processes.
• Proven success in financial modelling, forecasting, and operational performance analysis.

Technical Skills

• Advanced Excel and financial modelling capabilities.
• Experience with ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, MS Dynamics, Syspro or similar).
• Strong understanding of cost-to-serve, landed cost, inventory accounting, and OPEX management.
• Experience with BI & analytics tools (Power BI, Tableau, Qlik) highly advantageous.

Key Competencies

• Strategic Thinking: Connects financial outcomes to operational drivers.
• Business Acumen: Strong understanding of logistics, warehousing, and supply chain operations.
• Stakeholder Influence: Confident communicator who can challenge assumptions and guide decision-making.
• Analytical Mindset: Strong problem-solving capability with a data-driven approach.
• Collaboration & Partnership: Works effectively across cross-functional teams.
• Accuracy & Governance: High attention to detail and strong compliance orientation.
• Results Orientation: Provides insights and solutions that drive measurable business performance.

5. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Forecasting and budgeting accuracy.
• Improvement in logistics and supply chain cost efficiencies.
• Inventory optimisation and working capital enhancements.
• Delivery of procurement savings and contract value.
• Timeliness and quality of financial reporting.
• Stakeholder satisfaction and quality of business engagement.

6. Working Conditions

• Office-based with regular interaction at operational sites (warehouses, depots, production facilities).
• Occasional travel may be required depending on network footprint.

NB: Specific duties/responsibilities will vary from time to time: the above list is intended to indicate the general nature of the post and is not exhaustive. The post holder will be expected to be flexible in supporting the business by undertaking any other responsibilities which are aligned with this job level.