Financial Controller

Chickpea is a group of pubs in the South-West. We started in 2019 and now run 16 places: ten country pubs with rooms (or plans for them) and six city-centre sites including our pizza shop “nole”. We are still owned by our founders yet are expanding quickly, with three new openings committed in the next nine months. The Times called us \"the Pig Hotels of the pub world\". We are people-obsessed, and our mission is to reimagine rural hospitality.

Find out if this opportunity is a good fit by reading all of the information that follows below.

• Own the month-end close across all entities: timetable, accruals, prepayments, deferred income, stock, recharges, intercompany, balance sheet recs.
• Produce and analyse the monthly management accounts and board pack: a P&L for every pub, the consolidated group, cash flow and KPIs, with plain commentary against budget and last year.
• Build and maintain the budget and reforecast alongside the Finance Director.
• Own the year-end file, and lead the preparation for our first statutory audit in FY27 alongside the Finance Director and external accountants.
• Assist preparing the quarterly lender covenant calculations and the reporting that goes with them.
• Help deliver various financial and operational projects, including those already under way: the restructure wrap up, move to 4-4-5 period accounting from August 2027, and the switch to new accounting software.
• Grow with us: with three openings committed and more to follow, the scope of this role will expand with the group, and we want someone who sees it as a path towards a senior finance leadership position.

• Part-qualified or newly qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) with hands-on experience of month-end close. We will support your continued study and professional development.
• Hospitality experience preferred, not essential; a bonus if you already understand a pub P&L, GP, labour and stock. xwzovoh
• Strong Excel and comfortable in Xero (or similar); happy using AI and other tools to automate reporting.
• You like finding the story in the numbers and can explain it plainly to a GM.

• Study support
• Discounts across our pubs
• Pension
• Bonus scheme

- Reports to: Finance Director - Hours: Full time, permanent (40 hours per week) -