Financial mandate in an operating business
The company manufactures and distributes consumable products whose performance depends on mineral, grain, backing, bond, formulation, conversion and application. A broad assortment serves different materials, equipment and finishing outcomes. The portfolio can generate repeat demand, but it can also accumulate low-volume variants, slow stock, hidden rebates and price points that fail to recover commodity, energy and conversion cost.
The Board seeks a finance-led Independent Director who can rebuild the connection between reported margin and product-level economic reality. The role goes beyond financial-statement review: standard costs, yields, changeovers, plant absorption, inventory recoverability, channel stock, warranty, trade schemes and capital returns must be understood together.
Seven finance challenges to lead
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Product and customer profitability. Establish contribution by product family, specification, plant, customer and channel after freight, rebates, samples, technical support, claims, receivable days, obsolescence and the cost of small-batch complexity.
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Standard cost and variance truth. Review update frequency for minerals, backing, energy, labour, yields, scrap and overhead. Require transparent bridges across purchase price, formulation, throughput, changeover, quality, downtime and mix instead of a single unexplained variance.
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Inventory and assortment economics. Segment raw materials, work in progress, finished goods, samples, returns and obsolete specifications by technical and commercial recoverability. Challenge the habit of retaining low-value variants because individual write-offs appear immaterial.
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Revenue and channel accounting. Examine distributor inventory, rights of return, promotional schemes, volume rebates, free stock, price protection, extended credit, marketplaces and post-period adjustments. Sell-in must not be mistaken for durable end demand.
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Capital allocation and benefit realisation. Scrutinise kilns, coating or conversion lines, automation, pollution control, renewable energy, laboratories and capacity additions against the binding constraint, demand evidence, ramp-up, working capital and measurable post-completion benefits.
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Cash, treasury and downside resilience. Review commodity and currency exposure, customer concentration, receivable disputes, supplier credit, liquidity, insurance and stress under volume decline, input inflation, plant outage or channel correction.
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Financial control and management accountability. Strengthen close quality, manual journals, related parties, procurement, scrap, tooling, samples, expense authority, whistle-blower access and closure of internal-audit findings. The CFO must have direct access to the Audit Committee.
Audit Committee programme
The Director will shape a rolling agenda that links statutory reporting with operations. Deep dives should cover plant cost and yield; inventory existence and impairment; trade schemes and channel cut-off; capex authorisation and benefits; warranty and complaints; commodity exposure; related-party procurement; and cash conversion.
The Board dashboard should report realised price; volume and mix; gross-margin bridge; contribution after channel support; plant yield; scrap and rework; changeover loss; inventory age by recoverability; distributor stock; returns; rebates accrued and paid; overdue receivables; capex utilisation and benefits; audit findings; and downside liquidity.
Internal audit should combine transaction tests with physical inventory, production reconciliation, scrap observation, distributor confirmation and reperformance of scheme calculations. Management explanations should be supported by source data and stable definitions.
Judgments requiring independence
The appointee will advise on impairment, exceptional provisions, underperforming lines, discontinuation of uneconomic variants, major sourcing arrangements, pricing responses, distributor exposures, new capacity, acquisitions and capital return. A growth or capex proposal must show full cash economics, not EBITDA before the inventory and receivables needed to support it.
Candidate profile
Candidates should have at least 25 years of senior experience in finance, audit, controllership, industrial manufacturing, commodity-linked products or capital allocation. Suitable candidates may include former CFOs, finance directors, statutory-audit partners, business finance leaders, turnaround executives or experienced Audit Committee Chairs.
The candidate must be able to move from consolidated accounts to shop-floor drivers and channel evidence. Experience with standard costing, complex assortment, consumables, distributors, export finance, treasury, manufacturing capex or listed-company reporting is highly desirable.
Appointment conditions
Active inclusion in the IICA Independent Directors Databank is mandatory. The candidate must meet all independence and eligibility requirements applicable to a listed company. Relationships with promoter entities, customers, distributors, mineral and material suppliers, equipment vendors, banks, auditors, insurers or competitors must be disclosed.
The Director may not use the role to create audit, banking, supply, distribution, insurance or advisory assignments for connected parties.
What success will look like
In the first 100 days, the Director will review margin bridges, costing, inventory, trade schemes, cash conversion, major capex and unresolved audit matters; visit manufacturing and distribution operations; and meet finance and assurance leaders without executive management present.
By year end, the Board expects trustworthy product economics, realistic inventory, disciplined channel accounting, capex benefits that are measured after commissioning and a Finance Function able to challenge commercial and operating decisions with credible evidence.