Richard Farrington Email & Phone Number

Uk

Responsible for API Microwave Ltd, API Microelectronics Ltd, and SSIA International

Uk

Multi Site Manufacturer of High Tech products for the Defence and Aerospace Industries

Chicago

A $600m distributor of electronic components.Member of US senior management team for Canada, Mexico and the USA. Responsible for finance and facilities management.- Instigated investment in additional facilities to deliver growth program for value added business services with a sales improvement target of $10m p.a.- Applied propositional change in Canadian business to improve market competitiveness.- Designed and implemented comprehensive customer net profitability program through ABC, leading to improved financial governance and profitability of customer accounts.- Drove improved measurement and accountability for marketing investments and ensured they aligned with strategic and operational objectives.- Significantly improved business forecasting around costs and cash flows.- Restructured reporting and analytics teams into developers and business support, thus improving data integrity, staff efficiency and skills utilization.- Delivered improved governance of Balance Sheet and strengthened internal controls.- Improved working capital by circa $10m by focusing on inventory profiling, improving customer collections and reducing other Balance Sheet receivables. The changed inventory profiling aided reinvestment in faster selling SKU’s to improve customer service levels.- Developed a plan to dispose of under-utilized office building which delivered a multi $m capital benefit. - Drove > $3m reduction in long term costs.- Streamlined and enhanced reporting of management information so that KPI’s were delivered on a daily, weekly or monthly basis as appropriate.

United Kingdom

A £250m distributor of electronic components.Promoted from FD position in Buck Hickman. Responsible for developing operational plans in support of group strategy, and to manage European Commercial Finance Teams. . - Responsible for the finance teams in Germany, France Switzerland and the Nordics. Led restructuring to create a pan European business partnering team.- Responsible for financial lead on European multi £m change management and cost reduction programme.- Introduced daily order book reporting and monitoring of sales and margins for European region. These reports are now being used globally across the business.- Key member of team responsible for developing and delivering major investment programme in a number of regions, including Eastern Europe, in support of group strategy. - Supported Eastern European business acquisitions and carried out due diligence.- Seconded to Brazilian business as interim general manager.- Project leader on various service improvement and cost reduction initiatives.- Developed analytics to measure efficiency and effectiveness of European customer support and call centres. This supported improved customer service and lowered costs.

Coventry, United Kingdom

A £100m distributor of industrial consumable productsRecruited by Premier Farnell to improve quality of financial controls and operational profitability and, subsequently to support due diligence process on sale of the business. - Successfully submitted MRO contract bid to Rolls Royce with a value > £30m. Used ABC to justify price increase to customer.- Helped restructure the business to reduce cost by >£2m p.a.- Responsible for financial presentations to prospective purchasers of Buck Hickman.- Responsible for production of completion accounts.

United Kingdom

A major distributor of electrical and safety products- Negotiated multi £m MRO contracts with BSkyB and Cummins.- Eliminated non performing contracts saving over £3m p.a.- Downsized business structure and reduced annual overheads by £1.4m in just over 6 months.- Reduced working capital through stock and debtor reduction programmes.- Devised and implemented customer service levels.- Personally drove investment in new 80,000 sq. ft. distribution centre to improve service levels, reduce costs and reduce working capital.- Realigned and improved internal reporting, budgetary controls and forecasting.- Project managed implementation of Cognos reporting package.- Implemented activity based costing to establish contract profitability.- Negotiated business acquisition, and implemented post acquisition integration.- Successfully migrated divisional accounting activities to Shared Service Centre.- Turned round non performing aspect of Shared Service Centre by establishing clear objectives and priorities and then managing and motivating staff to perform.

Glasgow

Distributor of speciality chemicalsRecruited to deal with post acquisition integration into Umeco Group. Responsible for restructuring cost base and developing business plan to return to profitability.

United Kingdom

A leading manufacturer and installer of emergency communication systems for the elderly. - Introduced comprehensive forecasting system for contracts.- Increased contract margins by eliminating non performing products.- Designed and implemented new forms of subcontract, renegotiated reduced rates and introduced competitive tendering. Saved over £200k p.a.- Created and managed cross functional product delivery team, this led to reduced delivery times and significantly improved the quality of installations.- Instigated new product development to exploit market opportunity. Successfully negotiated £0.4m contract as first phase of £5m spend.- Reduced fixed overhead costs by over £200k p.a.- Member Nominated Trustee of Company Pension Fund.

Scunthorpe

A supplier of cement substitute based products to the construction and glass industries.

Provider of 3rd party logistics and warehousing for major retailersRecruited as interim accountant to provide financial management and reporting for customer contracts pending return to full time education at Cranfield University to study for MBA.

Leeds

Distributor of building & flooring products to the construction industry

Construction & EngineeringHeld various finance roles in a number of Amec businesses including, tunnelling, opencast mining and project management divisions. Also worked in group functions including internal audit and business systems implementation.

Mba

Fcca