Financial Director in Preston

Hawthorn One is proud to be partnering exclusively with a well-established, family-owned business in the North West on the appointment of a Finance Director. Our client operates across multiple sites, generating revenues of circa £12m with strong and consistent profitability. Revenue is driven by a combination of occupancy and fee management across the portfolio, and the Finance Director will need to understand and influence both levers to support the continued commercial performance of the business. It is a financially sound, well‐funded organisation with excellent banking relationships and a track record of disciplined, considered growth.

This is a business that is genuinely going places. It has been on a deliberate and well‐executed buy‐and‐build journey for over fifteen years, and with further acquisitions firmly on the agenda over the next 18 months, the incoming Finance Director will join at one of the most exciting points in the group's history.

What makes this business stand out is not just its financial performance, it is its culture. This is a people‐first organisation, led by a founder who has built the business from the ground up with genuine passion and clear values. The head office team is close‐knit and committed, with low staff turnover and a reputation that people within the business are proud of. It is the kind of organisation that attracts people who want their work to mean something.

The Finance Director Role

This is a Finance Director position sitting at Senior Leadership Team level, reporting directly to the founder and Managing Director. The Finance Director will have full ownership of the group's finance function and is expected to bring both strategic perspective and hands‐on delivery; this is an SME FD role in the truest sense, where you will do both the thinking and the doing.

The Finance Director will go beyond reporting numbers and instead interpret, challenge and shape what they mean. There is a strong foundation in place, but a genuine desire to embed a more commercially accountable mindset across the organisation, with finance playing a more central and visible role in driving performance. A key part of this is the ability to translate complex financial data into clear, meaningful insight for non‐financial managers, empowering them to make better decisions and take greater ownership of the financial performance of their areas. The Finance Director will also, on occasion, engage directly with the families of those the business serves, requiring genuine warmth, empathy and the ability to communicate with confidence and sensitivity in what can sometimes be emotionally charged conversations.

Key areas of responsibility include:

• Financial and commercial appraisal of acquisitions, with further acquisitions actively targeted in the next 18 months, leading due diligence, modelling, funding and integration.
• Production of monthly management accounts and board pack, weekly site‐level KPIs, annual budgets, monthly cash flow projections and covenant compliance schedules.
• Building and establishing a robust cash flow forecasting process, a priority from day one.
• Labour cost oversight and driving commercial performance improvements across the portfolio.
• Financial controls across income, expenditure and capex, and maximising the group's use of its Sage system.
• Funding strategy and banking relationship management, maintaining and developing the strong lender relationships already in place.
• Leading, mentoring and developing the Finance Manager, who is an engaged and committed member of the team actively looking to grow.

The Culture

Culture is the primary consideration at this business, not an afterthought. This is a warm, values‐driven organisation and the Finance Director will be expected to reflect that in everything they do. High emotional intelligence and the ability to communicate with warmth, clarity and adaptability across all levels of the organisation is a genuine requirement of this position.

The Managing Director has built this business from the ground up over more than fifteen years. She has a clear vision for where it is going and a leadership style that is warm, direct and people‐first. She is looking for a Finance Director who will be a genuine strategic partner, someone she can trust completely with both the numbers and the direction of the business. That kind of relationship is rare, and for the right person it is enormously rewarding.

What They Are Looking For

The right person combines genuine commercial and technical capability with the emotional intelligence to thrive in this environment. Technical brilliance alone will not be sufficient, the person who succeeds here will roll their sleeves up, communicate financial information clearly to non‐finance people, build trusted relationships across the organisation, and genuinely care about the business they are part of.

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) with 5+ years post‐qualification experience.
• FD or Senior Financial Controller level, ready to step fully and confidently into the FD seat.
• Multi‐site SME experience, understands what it means to be the senior finance person in a growing business where you do both the strategy and the doing.
• Experience in a multi‐site, service‐delivery business where occupancy, capacity utilisation or volume‐based revenue management is central to financial performance, an understanding of how operational decisions directly drive revenue is essential.
• Acquisitions and integration experience, appraising deals, supporting due diligence and getting newly acquired businesses properly embedded.
• Banking and funder relationship management.
• Strong financial modelling capability in Excel and experience of Sage or equivalent systems.

The person

• Hands‐on, rolls their sleeves up without being asked.
• High emotional intelligence, warm and adaptable, able to communicate with clarity at all levels.
• Commercially curious, interested in the business, not just the numbers.
• A natural mentor and leader, invested in the development of those around them.
• Fast, decisive and calm under pressure.
• Collaborative, builds confidence and capability, not dependency.
• Comfortable engaging directly with service users and their families, able to communicate with empathy, sensitivity and professionalism in conversations that matter deeply to the people involved.

If this role resonates with you, we would love to have a conversation. Please get in touch by submitting your application and CV to register your interest. All initial conversations are completely confidential.