Group Reporting Accountant

Company Overview: The Airedale Group are the leading market design, installation, and maintenance provider for commercial kitchens in the UK hospitality and food service industry. We work alongside clients from the initial designs through to bespoke fabrication and installation. Coupled with the largest body of professional maintenance engineers in the country, we offer the complete end-to-end solution to our extensive client base. We have long-standing relationships with many of the biggest multi-site brands in the UK.

Job Overview: We are seeking a Group Reporting Accountant who thrives in a fast-paced, private equity-backed environment and takes pride in producing accurate, timely, and insightful financial reporting. This is a key role within the Finance team, requiring someone who can work proactively and independently while bringing a curious, continuous improvement mindset. The successful candidate will communicate effectively with stakeholders across the business and embody our core values by demonstrating integrity in financial reporting, vision in driving reporting improvements, dedication to delivering high-quality work to agreed deadlines, and a passion for accuracy and attention to detail.

Key Responsibilities:

• Prepare monthly group consolidation (statutory and management), including journals, eliminations and intercompany
• Own group reporting timetables, ensuring consistent and disciplined close across all entities.
• Review subsidiary submissions for accuracy, consistency and accounting compliance.
• Maintain and develop the group chart of accounts and reporting structures.
• Produce monthly management accounts at group and sub‑group level.
• Support the preparation of Board packs, operating KPIs, and financial commentary.
• Deliver variance analysis vs budget, forecast and prior period, explaining movements clearly.
• Support cash flow, net debt and covenant reporting.
• Ad-hoc filing support e.g. confirmation statements
• Prepare reporting required under P.E. requirements (e.g. covenant calculations, borrower reporting).
• Support EBITDA definitions, normalisations, and add‑backs.
• Own and maintain Group reporting models and forecasting and analysis tools, ensuring appropriate controls and documentation.
• Act as a key finance contact for Rubicon questions and ad‑hoc analysis.
• Ownership of ESG reporting and involvement in strategy around data collection.
• Prepare or support group statutory accounts (UK GAAP / FRS 102 typically).
• Account for complex areas such as acquisitions, purchase accounting, share‑based payments, leases and provisions.
• Working with the Group FC liaise with external auditors, responding to queries and managing deliverables.
• Support acquisitions and integrations, including: Opening balance sheets, Accounting policy alignment, Reporting integration.
• Improve systems, controls and processes as the group scale.
• Support finance transformation or system implementations where required.
• Maintain strong financial control, documentation and audit trails.
• Identify and remediate control weaknesses.
• Support internal reviews, audit findings and remediation plans.

Experience Required:

Essential

• ACA / ACCA qualified.
• Strong group consolidation experience in a multi‑entity business.
• Hands‑on month‑end delivery mindset; comfortable working to tight PE deadlines.
• Strong technical accounting knowledge (FRS 102 / UK GAAP).
• Excellent Excel and financial modelling skills.
• Able to challenge, influence and support subsidiary finance teams.

Highly desirable

• Experience in a private‑equity‑backed or highly leveraged environment.
• Exposure to lender reporting and covenants.
• M&A or integration experience.
• Systems experience (e.g. consolidation tools, ERP implementations), (CaseWare, Sage Intacct, Cognos TM1).

Personal attributes

• Commercially minded and outcomes‑focused.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and change.
• The ability to learn quickly and adapt is essential in a fast-moving, high-growth environment
• Strong attention to detail with the ability to step back and “tell the story”.
• Resilient, organised, and able to operate calmly under pressure.
• Trusted partner to senior stakeholders.

The Airedale Group is expanding rapidly, employing circa 750 people across multiple locations in the UK. This is a fantastic time to be joining the business with opportunities for career progression.