Aneesh Thakkar

Experience

• 

  KPMG UK

  Sept 2006 - Oct 2011

  I was one of two members of my audit intake to be offered a six month secondment to the restructuring department. At the end of this, I was offered a permanent role in the department - where I remained for a further two years. Key Achievements● Assessing the purchase ledger and treasury functions of a high profile nursing home client with 750 homes. This lead to the modelling of spending in the functions allowing the company’s cash to be better forecast and managed. A key part of this was gaining an understanding of key supplier relationships and how these could be leveraged to manage cash balances.● Assisting in the planning and supervision of a company voluntary arrangement for a large sportswear retailer (JJB Sports) wishing to exit lease commitments for a number of stores. Key responsibilities including modelling voting scenarios of creditors and acting as the primary contact for all landlord queries.Main Responsibilities ● Performing business reviews on a number of clients in order to provide an independent view of the trading for both the company and their lenders’ benefit.● Liaising with clients’ finance teams to gain an understanding of their business and industry and customer and supplier relationships.● Developing strategies to allow companies to manage their cash balances allowing continued trading while a sustainable strategy could be devised. Show less

  • Assistant Manager

    Feb 2009 - Oct 2011

  • Associate

    Sept 2006 - Feb 2009
• 

  Card Factory

  Oct 2011 - Aug 2013

  Commercial Analyst

  Key Achievements● Managing the implementation of a new BI system to automate reporting and replace existing manual spreadsheet reports. This significantly improved report accuracy and production times enabling better informed decision making across the business.● Developing a suite of new product and store performance reports for store and area managers enabling them to improve performance through having relevant and easy to understand information. ● Preparing high level analysis of company performance for the Card Factory board and private equity owners. This was used when deciding to publicly float the company and as part of the subsequent due diligence work.Main Responsibilities● Development of weekly and monthly KPI reports for the board and management team, identifying trends and providing commentary and recommendations.● Modelling to assist in decision making around optimising store retail space and the selection of new store locations and relocations. Show less

• 

  Reckitt Benckiser (RB) - Hong Kong and Taiwan

  Jan 2014 - Feb 2015

  Business Analyst

  Key Achievements● Successfully improving the profitability of several loss making brands in the portfolio I managed by over £1m. This was achieved through cross functional working and close monitoring of promotional spending resulting in a return to profitability and a sustainable strategy going forwards. ● Financial lead in a working group to protect a leading RB brand from a new entrant in to the market. This involved developing strategic promotions ahead of the competitors launch and resulted in minimal loss in market share.● Leading a SKU rationalisation project to remove all poor performing SKUs and streamline the company’s product offering. As part of this, the number of active SKUs in the business was reduced by over 20% - (around 250 SKUs). Main Responsibilities● Accountability for monitoring and improving the sales and profitability of a number of leading RB brands with combined annual turnover of c.£50m including Dettol, Vanish, Airwick and Finish.● Analysis of monthly P&Ls for brands and products. Responsibility for presenting to the board of directors, explaining variances to budget and ways to address any underperformance.● Regular visits to the RB Taiwan office for sharing of best practice and understanding of new brands in a developing market.● Highlighting financial performance issues and working with cross functional teams (sales, marketing, supply and trade) to work out strategies to address.● Financial lead in monthly ‘Power Team’ meetings, contributing to a full overview and deep dive in to the performance and current strategy of key brands. Responsibility for all financial insight and follow up actions and analysis.● Working with multiple stakeholders to prepare forecasts for new product launches and leading subsequent monitoring and analysis, especially in early months of launch.● Critical analysis of all new product promotions, ensuring underperformance can be identified and remedied at the earliest opportunity. Show less

• 

  Hallmark UK & Ireland

  Apr 2015 - Jun 2019

  Key Achievements● Providing insightful product profitability analysis to the business enabling informed range rationalisation decisions and on overall profitability improvement of c.7%.● Business partnering and up-skilling of finance and non-finance colleagues contributing to a 5% saving in overheads versus the operating plan in the last two financial years and the overachievement of each year’s operating plan.● Successful project management of the implementation of a direct to store logistics solution and a consignment selling invoicing solution. This is projected to result in sales growth of 20% over 3 years.Main Responsibilities● Full commercial ownership of the P&L – responsibility for analysis and challenging the business on sales and margin, semi variable costs, overheads, stock levels and payroll. ● Providing ad-hoc reporting and insight to Tigerprint board of directors and senior M&S stakeholders.● Ownership of the executive monthly performance pack and group reporting requests.● Ownership of the Tigerprint annual budgeting process and in-year reforecasts along with contributing to M&S budget creation.● Line management of two business analysts including development and professional studies.● Regular presentation of trading results to all Tigerprint employees in weekly huddles and monthly company presentations.● Member of Hallmark international finance managers steering group focusing on aligning global ways of working and knowledge share across markets.● Coordination of internal and external finance audits. Show less

  • Finance Business Partner

    Apr 2017 - Jun 2019

  • Senior Business Analyst (Tigerprint)

    Apr 2015 - Mar 2017
• 

  Capita

  Jun 2019 - Aug 2023

  Leading pricing for new client and renewal bids together with involvement in client negotiations, deal shaping and contracting. As part of a cross functional team, my role involves coordinating and challenging pricing inputs from all areas of the business to create a robust and competitive bid price.Key Deals Priced● Lloyds bank c£200m contract value. Retender for customer service operations for general banking division● Project Odyssey – c£800m. New client bid for all customer contact work for a leading car lease financing entity in need of significant modernisation● Transport for London c.£39m. Tender for customer services relating to the TfL congestion charge zone and Ultra Low Emission Zone.● Southern Water - c.£65m. Repricing for an operation which was not functioning as contractually obliged. This involved multiple Capita divisions and consolidation of various financials to build a proposal for the customer.● M&S - c.£35m. Contract renewal involving modernising and enhancement of the customer offering through technology interventions Show less

  • Commercial Finance Manager - Capita Group

    Apr 2023 - Aug 2023

  • Commercial Finance Manager - Capita Experience

    Jun 2019 - Apr 2023
• 

  DXC Technology

  Sept 2023 - now

  Commercial Finance Lead

  I am responsible for pricing, deal structuring and commercials for new business and renewal bids as part of a cross functional bid team. This includes steering bids through DXC’s governance process and negotiating financials both internally and with clients with a focus on managing cashflow and deal payback whilst creating an appealing proposition for clients.