Senior Business Controller

Ahold Delhaize is one of the largest supermarket businesses in the world. The Senior Business Controller is responsible for the European market, analyzing markets and performance, discussing findings with the CFO, identifying actions, and sharing insights in reporting. This is an excellent opportunity for a curious, experienced controller to become an expert in food retail while working closely with global leadership.

About Ahold Delhaize

Ahold Delhaize is one of the largest players in the food retail space worldwide. With an impressive portfolio of 19 strong local brands, the supermarket concern serves more than fifty million customers every week from thousands of stores in the Benelux and the US.

Things are going well for Ahold Delhaize. In 2021, the company continued to post strong sales increases compared to the previous year. Several acquisitions and rising online sales both made a significant contribution to that growth. In Europe in particular, digital sales are rapidly increasing. This development is primed to continue – Ahold Delhaize expects to generate an increasing share of sales online.

The company has over 370,000 employees globally, of which 1,500 are in The Netherlands. The company offers a lot of space to shape one’s own career path within the organization and employee wellbeing and retention are a high priority. The head office in Zaandam serves as the home base for the Global Support Office (GSO). Here, a dedicated team works closely with individual regions to consolidate Ahold Delhaize’s success. The Business Planning & Performance team, part of GSO, consists of two enthusiastic colleagues that each focus on their own geographic market.

Vacancy: Senior Business Controller

The Senior Business Controller joining the Business Planning & Performance (BPP) team is responsible for the European market, which includes Benelux, Greece, Czech Republic, Serbia, and Romania. The key responsibility for the role is to understand what is happening with each country and brand – both by analyzing data and by having discussions with local teams – and to discuss and share insights with the global CFO and translate insights into actions.

The Senior Business Controller is responsible for monthly calls, preparing the press releases, and building and presenting the monthly decks for the Board and Executive Committee to discuss performance, budgets, forecasts, and planning. This means the position is directly engaged with the top leadership of the company. They will always have many questions and the Senior Business Controller will have the answers. This makes the role particularly exciting: seeing everything, building a strong understanding of success drivers, and being involved across the board. Other recurring activities are the Ahold Delhaize annual report, in which the BPP team presents about fifty pages of performance reviews, the quarterly press releases, and the external quarterly management board presentations.

“A Senior Business Controller sees everything and really understands what’s going on in the business. And then discusses that directly with our global CFO.” – Gijsjan Griffioen, Global Business Planning & Performance at Ahold Delhaize

In addition, there are various ad hoc projects, for example on sustainability, cash flow, e-commerce, potential new investments, or due to findings in business performance that call for additional analyses. Skills in PowerBI and data visualization tools are useful, as well as some experience with investment proposals. In these cases, the Senior Business Controller works closely with teams like Treasury, Investor Relations, and Accounting, so stakeholder management skills are also key.

Overall, an inquisitive mindset and self-starting attitude are crucial. This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced, dedicated controller or financial planner to join one of the largest global food retailers and become a true expert on the mechanics of the business while working closely with global leadership.

Interested?

Ahold Delhaize works with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.
To express your interest, contact Dox Wijers at dox.wijers@topofminds.com