Job Description

Finance Analyst - Franchise

£35,000 - £41,000 plus excellent benefits (Work Level 6A)

Manchester city centre – in this role you’ll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between home and the office around once a week (find out more about our hybrid working policy at https://jobs.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy).

We're looking for a Finance Analyst to join our Finance team and help shape and support the finance processes that underpin our growing franchise business. As Co-op continues to expand its reach through franchise partnerships, you'll play a key role in delivering reporting, analysis and financial support across our franchise stores, working closely with internal stakeholders and external partners to help drive informed decision-making and sustainable growth.

Why this role matters

This is an exciting opportunity to join us at a time of significant growth as we expand our franchise network and bring Co-op to more communities across the UK. You'll build strong relationships with colleagues and franchise partners, gain exposure to a wide range of teams across the business, and have the chance to make a real impact on how we support and develop our franchise operations. If you're looking for a role where you can apply your accountancy expertise, influence key decisions and grow your profile in a business that puts people at the heart of its strategy, we'd love to hear from you.

What you’ll do

• Produce daily, weekly and periodic reporting to both internal and external partners, providing insightful commentary to inform decision making
• Provide tailored and detailed data analysis to understand performance and help identify new opportunities
• Make sure new stores are correctly set up and ready to trade from day one: you’ll enable transactions, bank arrangements, systems configuration and reporting
• Work closely with internal teams across finance, IT, retail operations and data and analytics to make sure new franchise stores are correctly set up
• Support the month end process, including calculating and requesting manual invoices / credits to the franchisees, promotion accruals and other charges
• Maintain accurate reconciliations and support audit queries
• Support account management reviews, presenting operational performance and driving insightful conversations, improving the understanding of key variances
• Provide support to the preparation of the annual budget and forecast process

What you’ll bring

We’re committed to making our roles as accessible as possible, so we only ask for the minimum criteria. To thrive here, you’ll need to bring:

• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to manage large sets of data to provide measurable financial insight
• A relevant finance qualification (such as CIMA, ACA, ACCA) or working towards it; we’d also like to hear from you if you’re qualified by experience
• A keen eye for detail and accuracy
• The ability to prioritise and manage own workload to meet deadlines
• The ability to build meaningful relationships and work collaboratively with a wide range of internal and external partners and senior leaders
• A passion for continuous improvement

Why Co-op?

At Co-op, we’re owned by our members. And because we’re owned by you, we can do right by you. So when you join us, you’re not just taking a job, you’re joining a movement. We’re an organisation that puts people and communities first, and we’re powered by purpose. We want this to be a place where you can thrive, so you’ll also receive:

• An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)
• 28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays
• A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
• Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
• 30% discount on Co-op products and 10% off other brands
• Stream – early access to a percentage of your pay as you earn it
• Virtual healthcare including GP appointments, mental health support, nutrition and fitness advice
• 24/7 colleague support service
• Training and support for your development and career progression
• Cycle-to-work scheme

A place you’ll belong

We’re building diverse and inclusive teams that reflect the communities we serve. We welcome applications from everyone and are committed to creating a workplace where colleagues can feel like they belong, supported by our inclusive policies and the ways we work.

We’re proud to be part of the Disability Confident scheme and offer interviews to disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for a job. If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process, we’ll support you.

Learn more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process and our inclusion commitments at jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion

Please note that we may close applications for this role early.

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes up to 50 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.