Case Study Profile: Chris Wright

Chris Wright
Group Treasurer
SSP Group Ltd

Background

SSP Group Ltd is an international food and beverage concession business that runs restaurants, catering outlets and convenience stores in travel locations in 30 countries throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. SSP was formally a division of a large FTSE 100 listed Group but was sold to a Private Equity buyer in June 2006 in a deal primarily funded by Debt (a leveraged buyout).

What do you do?

It is my role to ensure that we continue to meet our obligations under this debt facility; to use cash as efficiently as possible within the Group, to ensure the various operating businesses remit cash back to the centre to meet our interest obligations, to ensure that the business is not exposed to movements in interest rates or FX rates, and to provide advice to the various subsidiaries regarding their retail banking requirements.

What did you study?

By my final year of university I had decided that I wanted to go into the retail/FMCG business and started investigating a number of graduate schemes with large companies. I had decided that traditional accountancy (i.e. auditing) was not for me but saw The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) stand at our University careers fair and was attracted by their qualification and different focus.

At the time I applied for university, I was interested in studying law but was unsure as to whether I would enjoy it enough to make a career out of it. I had enjoyed studying economics at A-Level so decided to study both to broaden my options. Looking through the UCAS guide, I saw that many universities offered dual honours courses where you could initially study both subjects before majoring in one of them but only a small number offered a true joint honours course, allowing you to study both subjects in full, so I focused my attention on these, selecting Keele as my first choice.

Professional qualifications

After graduating from university, I joined the Finance Graduate Management scheme at Safeway PLC, undertaking a number of management accounting roles whilst completing my CIMA (management accounting) exams. Having completed the scheme I was offered the permanent role of Treasury Accountant, and as I had no previous experience in Treasury I persuaded my employer to pay for me to study the Association of Corporate Treasurer’s (ACT) core qualification – the AMCT Diploma in Treasury. Over the past six years I have focused on building up my practical experience, but do intend to take the MCT Advanced Diploma, the ACT’s full membership level qualification in the next couple of years.

The advantages

What I enjoy most is the sheer variety of the work that comes across my desk and the interaction with, and opportunity to influence the most senior members of SSP’s management team. The opportunity to travel to our various subsidiaries around the world is also a bonus.

Advice

Treasury is definitely not a 9 to 5 job and a good deal of commitment is required to get to the highest levels of the profession. You need excellent organisation and time management skills, a good ability to influence others, a sound understanding of treasury fundamentals and an ability to connect the theory learned to the commercial organisation.