The Role at a Glance
Head of Finance & Commercial
Tewinbury Farm Hotel Welwyn, Hertfordshire
Site-Based 5 Days per Week Some Flexibility
Salary DOE + c.15% Profit-Based Bonus
Full-Time Permanent 40 Hours
Reporting to: Director of Strategy
Direct Reports: 2
Start Date: ASAP Preferred
Own the Finance Function
You’ll lead finance across multiple Group entities, taking responsibility for the day-to-day financial operation, reporting, controls and compliance.
Your responsibilities will include:
- Period-end close across 13 four-weekly accounting periods, typically completed within a week, including reconciliations and management accounts
- Budgets, rolling forecasts, board reporting and financial analysis
- Multi-entity accounting, intercompany recharges, departmental cost centres and consolidated reporting
- VAT across mixed income streams, including accommodation, F&B, events, memberships, property and farming
- Supplier payments, banking, cash flow, working capital and debt facilities
- Multi-site payroll, pensions, PAYE, tips and service charge administration
- Maintaining robust financial controls, compliance and effective processes
- Overseeing year-end, statutory accounts and corporation tax alongside external accountants
- Leading and developing a small, established finance team
You’ll need to be comfortable managing the complexity of a family business operating through several companies, while keeping financial information clear and meaningful for the people making decisions.
Bring Commercial Thinking to the Table
We don’t want someone who simply produces a report and hands it over. We want someone who spots the opportunity, builds the plan and helps make it happen.
You’ll work with everyone from restaurant managers and kitchen teams to the family board, helping non-finance colleagues understand their P&Ls, identify variances and improve performance.
That means getting underneath labour costs, rotas, stock, gross profit, event profitability and operational efficiencies, then working with the teams to deliver improvements across the Group.
And when the family comes forward with a new idea?
You’ll be the person who can quickly build a practical financial model, assess the potential return, highlight the risks and help determine whether it’s worth pursuing.
Your wider commercial remit will include:
- Procurement, supplier negotiations and cost-saving initiatives
- Commercial agreements, insurance renewals and risk management
- Rental income, leases and partner arrangements
- Capital expenditure and building project costing
- Financial modelling for new opportunities, venues and business initiatives
- Supporting operational leaders to implement commercially sound decisions
You’ll have genuine access to the board and the opportunity to influence decisions, provided you can combine sound judgement with clear, constructive communication.
Make Finance Smarter
Technology and automation are important priorities for Tewinbury, with strong support from the board.
You’ll oversee the Group’s finance and operational systems, including Xero, Moss, Mews, Lightspeed, Event Temple and Microsoft 365, ensuring data flows accurately between platforms and identifying opportunities to improve integration.
We’re particularly interested in someone who sees the potential of AI, automation and better reporting to reduce manual work, simplify processes and give managers faster access to useful financial information.
The aim is to build a leaner, more effective finance function that spends less time assembling reports and more time helping the business perform.
About You
Strong hospitality finance experience is a priority.
You’ll have proven finance leadership experience within hotels, multi-site restaurants or a comparable hospitality or leisure environment, ideally supporting a business with £10m £20m turnover through growth.
What You’ll Bring:
- Hands-on financial management across period-end, management accounts, budgets and forecasts
- Strong VAT knowledge, ideally involving multiple entities and varied income streams
- Experience managing cash flow, banking, payments, payroll and financial controls
- Commercial business partnering within an operational hospitality environment
- Confidence analysing profitability, identifying opportunities and implementing improvements
- The ability to produce practical financial models and business cases at pace
- Experience leading a finance team and working with external accountants
- Strong systems capability and an interest in AI, automation and process improvement
- Excellent stakeholder management, with the confidence to challenge senior leaders constructively
- The ability to manage competing priorities, work independently and adapt to a fast-moving business
Qualifications & Additional Experience
A professional accounting qualification is desirable, with CIMA preferred, although ACA, ACCA, part-qualified and strong qualified-by-experience candidates will also be considered.
Relevant hospitality experience and proven delivery matter more to us than qualifications alone.
Experience with hospitality PMS/POS systems, commercial insurance, banking facilities, capital projects, contracts or finance systems implementation would also be valuable.
Nobody is above helping out. No egos. Just people who care about making the business work.
You’ll ideally live within a minute commute of Tewinbury. Welwyn North station offers connections from North London, although onward transport is needed to reach the hotel.
Why Tewinbury?
You’ll have a genuine seat at the leadership table of a growing family business, with the autonomy to improve how finance operates and the opportunity to influence commercial decisions across a diverse hospitality portfolio.
The package includes:
- Competitive salary DOE
- Profit-based bonus of circa 15% of salary
- Private healthcare
- Subsidised Farm Fitness gym membership
- Hotel stays at Tewinbury and partner hotels as part of R&D
- Meals on duty
- Employee discounts across Tewinbury Group venues
- Free on-site parking
If you’re a hands-on hospitality finance leader who enjoys being close to the operation, bringing commercial ideas to life and making a tangible difference, we’d love to hear from you.
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