Finance - Case Studies

Centrica Case Study

Energy giant Centrica finds permanent value from an interim proposition

Ranked in the top 30 of the FTSE100 index, with revenues of £22bn and more than 34,000 employees, Archer Mathieson’s client Centrica is large by most standards. In a business of this scale and complexity, understanding the fine detail of where and how costs are incurred can be an equally large, ongoing and complex challenge. It was against this backdrop that Stephen Packer first arrived at Centrica in May 2010 as an interim finance analyst.

Archer Mathieson was asked to identify someone to run a three month cost analysis project on the property portfolio of British Gas, a Centrica group subsidiary brand and Britain’s biggest domestic energy supplier. Although British Gas has a dedicated team of property professionals, ultimate responsibility for the group’s property strategy and around 80 buildings falls under the remit of human resources, as Packer explains:

“Like many large employers, British Gas is continually searching for operating efficiencies. This and other factors are altering it’s property needs so we need premises of the right type in the right place to suit fast-changing working practices. HR plays a key role in overall business strategy and is at the centre of the resources people need to do their job, so it makes sense for it to shape the firm’s property strategy too.”  

Having made a strong impression with the original cost analysis project, in November 2010 Packer was appointed head of property strategy – a return to permanent employment. Three months later, after successfully making his case to British Gas’s HR director, his remit was expanded again with a second role as HR finance director. Packer had recognised his skills could be put to wider use, providing financial management and overall governance to British Gas’s human resources department. In itself, this is a sizeable organisation with around 800 staff and a £100m annual budget.

“Taking on the wider job meant we needed to temporarily back-fill part of the role I was originally hired for, so we went back to Archer Mathieson, only this time I was the client. The level of courtesy and professionalism you receive from recruitment firms as a candidate sticks with you. Since I first met Catherine in 2006, she and colleague Ben Davies have always stood out in this respect making Archer Mathieson a natural first choice,” says Packer.

Among Archer Mathieson’s shortlist was Ken Allen, who had just ended an interim finance role at Royal Bank of Scotland. He’d first met Archer Mathieson in late 2009 after taking redundancy from technology giant HP’s UK headquarters in Bracknell. Allen had spent 16 years in various finance roles at HP and admits to some trepidation about re-entering the job market as an interim after such a long period with one firm. 

“What stood out very vividly for someone like me in their early 40s and out of the job-seeking loop for 14 years was the huge amount of advice I was offered. I saw several other recruitment firms and I was confident Archer Mathieson only dealt with finance roles at the higher, bespoke end of the market. That feeling was subsequently confirmed as fact when I discovered they’d advised HP’s former UK finance director on his next move.”

For British Gas’s Stephen Packer, it was clear that Allen had the right blend of technical skills and experience, plus the softer skills required for engaging the various Centrica stakeholders he needed to work alongside. 

“You take the technical skills as a given with interims, but for this role an ability to quickly build rapport and provide support in a non-threatening way was equally important. Ken has all of these qualities plus a wealth of experience working in a sector known for its relentless focus on cost efficiency.”

British Gas is now searching for a permanent post-holder for the financial analysis and data support function Ken Allen is currently providing. In the meantime, Stephen Packer has the specialist interim resource he needs to help reconfigure the organisation’s property needs, while at the same time ensuring its human resources department is managing expenditure as befits one of Britain’s biggest businesses.