113 years. Five generations. Three countries. Three companies. One Management Accountant.
The Findlay Group has been commercially baking bread in Gisborne since 1913, and we are now in our 4th generation of family ownership with the 5th generation already in the business. The bakery is what we are known for locally, but it is only half the story: we also manufacture food coatings with ground breaking technologies – predusts, batters and breadings – from one site in New Zealand, two sites in Australia and three in the USA, employing around 200 people worldwide.
For an accountant, that is the interesting part. Three separate companies to consolidate. Multiple currencies. Multiple tax jurisdictions. Real inter-company work. A month-end that actually requires judgement. If you have outgrown a role where the numbers do the same thing every month, keep reading.
The role
You will report directly to the Chief Financial Officer, with visibility across all three companies in the group and a seat close enough to the commercial decisions that your analysis actually changes them. This is an end-to-end role: close, compliance, analysis, forecasting, pricing and improvement. Nobody will hand you one slice of a ledger.
Where you will make your mark
- Own the month-end and year-end close – and leave it faster than you found it
- Build the consolidations, annual financial statements and monthly business snapshots that leadership actually reads
- Turn variance analysis, budgets and forecasts into decisions, not documents
- Model the numbers behind product pricing, where a decimal point moves real margin
- Help drive the ERP upgrade and design controls built to scale with the group
- Keep compliance airtight – GST, FBT, tax, regulatory reporting and audit
You will thrive here if you bring
- An accounting or finance degree, with CA or CPA completed or well underway
- Solid command of NZ accounting standards and tax requirements, including IFRS to help with the year end statements
- Management accounting experience and Excel and BI skills you are quietly proud of
- The knack for making financial information land with non-finance people
- Bonus points for multi-entity, manufacturing or payroll exposure
Why you will want this one
- Genuine end-to-end ownership – the whole cycle, not a fragment of it
- A direct line to the CFO and to the family who own the business
- A small but highly dedicated finance team, where nothing you do goes unnoticed
- International complexity without big-corporate bureaucracy
- 0.8 FTE genuinely on the table, and relocation assistance for the right person
- Gisborne: first city in the world to see the sun, and a commute measured in minutes
If you want your expertise to be visible rather than buried, this is the one.
Closing Date: 5.00pm Friday 4 September 2026
We review applications as they arrive and may appoint before the closing date, so please do not sit on it.
Apply now, or contact Sarah, People and Performance Manager, at sarah.ronaldson@wfl.co.nz for a confidential conversation.
