Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
LNGG
Timeline
Generic

Remko Marc Wessels

Zug

Summary

Strategic finance leader with robust experience in corporate financial management and strategic planning. Strong focus on team collaboration, driving financial performance, and adapting to changing business needs. Expertise in financial analysis, budgeting, risk management, and compliance. Known for reliability and achieving significant results through effective leadership and strategic decision-making.

Overview

18
18
years of professional experience

Work History

Group CFO & CPO

Capri Sun Holding AG
01.2018 - Current
  • Company Overview: Capri Sun Holding AG comprises of Capri Sun AG, Pouch Partners AG, Capri Sun GMBH, Capri Sun Vertriebs GMBH, INDAG GMBH, Capri Sun China Holding AG and Sunca AG, a group of companies owned by Hans Peter Wild. The Group is best known for the 6 billion packs of Capri Sun sold in over 110 countries around the world and the supply of high-tech production and packaging solutions for the food & beverage industry.
  • At CAPRI SUN we are driven by a vision of putting smiles on people’s faces each time they sip one of our products and we are doing that 6 billion times a year! We are passionate about the great taste and naturalness of our products and the fun that comes from drinking from our Capri Sun pouch. Our iconic Capri Sun brand is loved by young and the young at heart in over 110 countries and is the #1 kids beverage brand in the world and the 4th largest juice brand globally. Next to that we have our "all.i.need" brand with its organic, energizing and healthy sparkling tea drinks.
  • Capri Sun is produced in over 24 production sites globally, partnering with professional companies like Kraft Heinz Company and Coca-Cola. We have offices in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Dubai and China. Our company has all the characteristics of a privately-owned business, where our owner Dr. Hans-Peter Wild has grown the business through a ‘can do’ attitude and a focus on innovation and quality. We nurture our challenger culture and develop our people to deliver our vision of profitable growth to 8 billion smiles by 2021.
  • After 22 years in Unilever, I joined this great company because of the opportunity to make a significant and measurable impact and create superior value in a truly business and performance focused environment, something I found was increasingly difficult to do in Big Foods/Big FMCG. Capri Sun is a company with a great team, an ambitious but credible strategy to grow exponentially and profitably and a committed shareholder, all built around a great brand with a strong heritage and an opportunity to be leveraged for superior value creation well beyond its current footprint.
  • As the Group CFO & CPO I lead the Finance, IT and Procurement functions across all Group, Holding and Operating units. Purposeful leadership sits at the heart of what I do, driven by my purpose to ‘Make a Difference’. Some of the key achievements in my current role in the past years are:
  • Delivery of consistent revenue (10%+) and EBIT (20%+) growth YoY.
  • Setting up of go-direct models in UAE and Poland, insourcing the business of our local license partners.
  • Reduction of the cash-conversion-cycle from 49 to 5 days, releasing €30m in cash from working capital.
  • Strong focus on OCF, shifting balance-sheet from a net debt -€30m to a net cash +€150m in 3 years.
  • Tendering out all Tax, Audit and Insurance services, achieving better service at a lower cost.
  • Creation of a Group Treasury function; implementation of forex and commodity hedging approaches, introduction of active interest management and creation of a global cash-pool.
  • Significant savings in Raw/Pack/Indirects Procurement, at an average clip of 4% of revenue p.a.
  • Outsourcing of IT Helpdesk services, improving the user experience at a lower cost and higher flexibility.
  • Introduction of the paper straw, complying with EU single use plastics regulations banning plastic straw.
  • Significant step-up in bench-strength of Finance, IT and Procurement talent/teams.
  • Improvement of Finance systems & processes, shortening reporting timetables by 50%.
  • Restructuring and divestiture of non-profitable parts of our Machinery and Packaging businesses, refocusing the operations as an internal ‘technology/service provider’ for Capri-Sun Beverages.

CFO, VP Finance Unilever SEAA

Unilever, Unilever South East Asia & Australasia (SEAA)
01.2016 - 01.2018
  • Company Overview: Unilever South East Asia & Australasia has €7bln. in sales and spans a wide and diverse set of countries, ranging from the consolidated low-growth modern trade environments of ANZ, Malaysia and Singapore to frontier markets like Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, with the rapidly developing markets of Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Philippines at different positions across this spectrum. The business is Unilever’s most profitable cluster and its no. 2 absolute cash-generator, contributing disproportionally to global value creation.
  • As the CFO for the cluster, I was member of the cluster leadership team, which holds responsibility for running and developing the business on-the-ground, leading a team of direct reports consisting of 5 country Finance VPs and 5 Finance Directors, with indirect responsibility for a Finance function of 500+ headcount. I also served as the CFO of Unilever Asia Private Limited, which is the value chain company for Unilever in Asia, and also holds Global Procurement, Global Engineering, Global Exports and parts of Global Marketing and Global Analytics, closely cooperating with and tapping into the Singapore EDB ecosystem.
  • Main impacts and achievements in the role were:
  • Brilliant Basics: Deliver the short-term:
  • O SEAA Planning & Performance management, securing delivery of the cluster results to Unilever, setting priorities and targets across countries & categories, in-year dynamic resource (re-)allocation.
  • O Setting up and landing in-country the core activity systems to drive short-term performance improvement; Zero-Based-Budgeting, Margin-Competitive-Business-Models, Net-Revenue-Management/Perfect Pricing, etc., collectively driving €300m savings in 2017 and €80m incremental turnover.
  • O Treasury/Tax/Pensions improvement programs. Supported by the global subject matter experts in these respective fields, define, drive and deliver improvement programs in all these areas, aimed at unlocking value and improving cash-flow. Examples are supplier financing, optimization of SEAA tax model, sale-and-lease-back of the real-estate portfolio, etc.
  • Transformational Value: Future proof the business:
  • O Extend and expand into new geographies, new channels and new business models: develop and drive M&A, white-space expansion, e-commerce, B2B, Direct-to-Consumer, etc. Landed 2 M&A transactions in 2017 (Myanmar and Australia), e-commerce growth +100%, B2B business model defined with launch planned for 2018/2019.
  • O Build capabilities to win in the future: digitization of route-to-market, Big Data and Analytics driven business decision making, robotization in back-office, application of blockchain.
  • Winning Organization: Build talent & teams:
  • O Crucially important in a very competitive talent market environment and something I have spent disproportionate time on, giving me great energy and satisfaction, across all roles I have held in the past 20 years. I got personally involved in the graduate trainee selections across countries and coached/mentored many of the key SEAA talents as well as Unilever talent I recruited in previous roles.
  • O In 2017, we rolled-out the global Future Finance program in SEAA, putting back in sharper focus the different Finance roles, driving more productivity and efficiency in our organization and re-defining business partnering with a focus on protecting and driving value.

VP Finance Global Home Care & VP Finance Chief Marketing Office

Unilever, Global Home Care Category & Corporate
01.2013 - 01.2016
  • Company Overview: With €10bln. in sales, Home Care represents close to 20% of Unilever’s total. The Category spans across Laundry Detergents (Persil, Omo, Surf, Radiant), Fabric Conditioners (Comfort, Snuggle), Floor- and Surface Cleaners (Cif, Glorix), Hygiene (Domestos), Dish-wash (Sun, Sunlight) and Water Purification (PureIt). It has a strong emerging markets footprint (80% of sales) and sits at the heart of Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan.
  • As the VP Finance, I worked alongside the President Home Care, on an ambitious agenda to change profitability in this category which in previous years had served as Unilever’s engine of volume growth, but a low margin and no value creation. Leading a virtual team of around 50 finance professionals, based in different locations around the world.
  • Key responsibilities, focus areas and achievements were:
  • Category Strategy: Categories in Unilever are responsible for longer term Category strategy and consequent resource allocation and prioritization (not for delivery of the p&l, which is the country/cluster responsibility). Key contribution, leading the x-functional competitor intelligence team that analyzed competitor strategies and trade-offs around growth/margin management, defining the program that would help deliver the doubling of Home Care global operating margins in 4 years.
  • Driving growth: Home Care is an extremely competitive category with strong challenge from both global and local competitors in many of our markets. Close coordination and cooperation with our OpCo’s is crucial for success in Home Care. OTIF delivery of innovations, building the equity of our brands through superior communication/activation, ensuring competitive funding/right balance across the different elements of the mix (advertising, promotions, etc.). CAGR 2013-2016 +5.3%.
  • Driving margin: Unilever made a public commitment to financial markets and shareholders in 2013 to double the Home Care operating margin by 2020. In my role, I co-led the margin programs together with my Supply Chain colleague, with a focus on Low-Cost-Business-Models, Return-on-Marking-Investment, competitive overheads structures and location choices, harmonization and simplification of formulations/products and business processes, etc. The commitment of lifting margin to double-digit was reached by 2017, achieving a +500bps improvement 3 years ahead of schedule.
  • Next to my role in Home Care, during 2013/2014 I also provided the finance support to the Chief Marketing Officer and his team (Media, Consumer & Markets Insight, Marketing, Communications, Sustainability). Key responsibilities and focus areas being:
  • Return on Marketing Investment: Unilever is the 2nd largest advertiser in the world. Technology and lifestyle are driving significant changes in where people spend time and how they access media and information.
  • Driving efficiency and impact across the different traditional and digital marketing communication channels was an important part of my role. Media production costs were reduced by 25%.
  • Media and Creative Agency relations and negotiations. Unilever uses 3rd parties to support advertising production, media planning etc. Driving down the cost and maximizing the value out of these relationships (both in how we deal with the 3rd parties as how we organize internally) is crucial.
  • Sustainability. Unilever is at the forefront of the move towards sustainable business development. In my finance role in CMO I was focused on embedding Sustainability into our business model, lifting it beyond merely being a CSR initiative.

Vice President Finance Unilever Russia, Ukraine & Belorussia

Unilever, Unilever Russia, Ukraine & Belorussia
01.2009 - 01.2013
  • Company Overview: Unilever RUB is a €1,3bln. consumer goods business across Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia with market leading positions in Ice Cream, Household Cleaners, Deodorants, Face Care, Hair Care and complementing strong positions in Tea, Dressings and Oral Care.
  • In my position as VP Finance, I was responsible for a team of 250 Finance professionals and carried direct responsibility for all elements of Finance (Planning & Performance Management, Finance Operations/ Financial Accounting, Business Partnering/Management Information, Supply Chain Finance, Controlling & Risk Management, Tax & Treasury).
  • Next to driving an ambitious organic growth agenda across the territory, my key focus was on capability building, talent development, improving RoI/efficiency and M&A activity. Key achievements include:
  • Doubling the size of the business from €650m. in 2008 to €1.3bln. in 2013 through a combination of organic growth and M&A, in a Russian market environment which was adversely impacted by the global economic crisis. During this period market share positions in all categories were strengthened.
  • Acquisition of Concern Kalina. Acquisition of 100% of the shares in this publicly quoted Russian Personal Care company, adding significant scale to our overall business, doubling the size of our Personal Care position and achieving leading positions across the Russian Personal Care market. Acquisition happened through a first step acquiring 82% of the shares following which the company was delisted from the Moscow Stock Exchange, completing a Mandatory Tender Offer for the remaining minority shares, finally followed by legal squeeze out of the remaining minorities once we got past 95% threshold.
  • Delivery of an ambitious savings/RoI improvement programs across Supply Chain costs (€30m. p.a.), Trade & Marketing Investment (€50m. p.a.) and Company Overheads (€8m. p.a.).
  • Leading the Unilever RUB transformation agenda, with personal focus on overall program management, risk management and change management. This program has resulted in capability improvement across the business, making it more agile, simpler and more competitive. Key elements include the implementation of a new SAP based global process model (go-live December 2012), the integration of the 2008 Inmarko Ice Cream acquisition, the creation of Finance/HR/IT/Procurement Shared Services out of Siberia (go-live 2012), a restructuring/simplification of the number of legal entities and the Ice Cream business model and the first step integration of the Kalina acquisition into Unilever RUB.
  • Strong progress on improving the average bench-strength of the Finance resources as well as engagement levels across the Finance team. Attrition rates significantly reduced, People Survey scores well ahead of external benchmarks and in Unilever top-25% in many dimensions. Unilever RUB Finance became net exporter of talent.

Vice President Finance / National Finance Director Unilever Greece

Unilever, Unilever Greece
01.2007 - 01.2009
  • Company Overview: Unilever Greece is part of the Europe markets cluster with revenues close to €0,5bln. when I joined. Growth was +5% YoY during 2007-2009 with continuous market share expansion. The business has leading position across all of its categories.
  • I joined when the 1-Unilever program was implemented in Greece and was therefore the first NFD to carry full responsibility for the combined business across Foods, HPC and Ice Cream. Key activities and achievements include:
  • Acquiring the remaining 33% minority share in the Foods business and delisting the company from the Athens Stock Exchange. This project had been started by my predecessor and I inherited a situation in which an interloper had taken a 10,5% share position at the launch of the tender offer, thus blocking us from reaching the minimum threshold of 90% for a legal squeeze out of remaining minorities. I negotiated for a period of 6 months and finally acquired the stake from the interloper at market conditions, completed the minority squeeze out and took the company private for Unilever.
  • Legal restructuring of the business to reduce costs/complexity and carve-out the non-strategic part of the Foods business (MedWinners - Olive Oil, Baking Products, Tomato). Subsequent disposal process of MedWinners (Information Memorandum, Vendor Due Diligence, Auction). Portfolio finally not sold as we could not get retention value in severely deteriorated Private Equity environment in summer 2009 (post 2008 Lehman failure financial crisis).
  • Gearing up of the balance sheet post legal restructuring, optimizing funding and tax structures and resulting in significant tax and finance costs savings.
  • Implementation of Sirius/Mountain SAP based common European process and tax efficient business model. Significant operational and tax benefits as result and potential to roll-out European Shared Services model in the future.
  • Decoupling the company pension system from the country social security system. Previous situation was that any deterioration in the Greek social security system affecting employee’s pensions would be compensated by the company. I decoupled the two, saving the company millions of Euros when the financial crisis hit Greece in 2010/2011 and severe austerity measures were implemented.

Education

Post-Graduate Chartered Controllers program -

Dutch Institute for Chartered Controllers – University of Maastricht
01.1995

Master Program - Economics & Business Administration

University of Maastricht
01.1992

Master Program - International Management

University of Maastricht
01.1992

Skills

  • Cash flow management
  • Financial process improvement
  • Financial strategy development
  • Audit coordination

LNGG

Dutch/English/French/German (all fluent), Spanish/Portuguese (basic)

Timeline

Group CFO & CPO

Capri Sun Holding AG
01.2018 - Current

CFO, VP Finance Unilever SEAA

Unilever, Unilever South East Asia & Australasia (SEAA)
01.2016 - 01.2018

VP Finance Global Home Care & VP Finance Chief Marketing Office

Unilever, Global Home Care Category & Corporate
01.2013 - 01.2016

Vice President Finance Unilever Russia, Ukraine & Belorussia

Unilever, Unilever Russia, Ukraine & Belorussia
01.2009 - 01.2013

Vice President Finance / National Finance Director Unilever Greece

Unilever, Unilever Greece
01.2007 - 01.2009

Master Program - Economics & Business Administration

University of Maastricht

Master Program - International Management

University of Maastricht

Post-Graduate Chartered Controllers program -

Dutch Institute for Chartered Controllers – University of Maastricht

Similar Profiles

CREATE PROFILE
Remko Marc Wessels