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WED2B’s Finance Team Keeping Cash High on the Business Agenda

The role of cash for an SME is not markedly different to that of a large company, but arguably there is more pressure to get the numbers right. Juliana Kitching, Finance Director, WED2B, the UK’s largest bridalwear retailer, shares her insights and experiences of financial leadership across a range of businesses, offering some tips for success.

Since launching in 2009, UK-based bridal wear designer and retailer WED2B has opened 59 stores across the UK, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. The company is therefore well aware that building a business can be cash intensive and that what is needed is robust data, solid reporting, precise calculation methods, and strong cash flow planning. It also recognises the importance of a cash culture.

The organisation has found that progress along these lines can be greatly enhanced when deploying a single platform capable of aggregating, analysing, and reporting all of its financial data. To this end, TMI Innovation Lab entry, Agicap is becoming a fixture in WED2B’s active growth plans to enhance its current cash flow modelling.

Future of cash

Kitching arrived at the bridal business via her role as Head of International Finance at The Foschini Group, a South African publicly listed retail clothing giant, and as CFO of South African direct-seller of soft furnishings, Pres Les. With this experience, combined with almost 12 years spent auditing retailers through KPMG, she knows only too well that cash is still king whenever a business is under pressure or seeks to thrive. In her experience of auditing large retailers, cash is considered through monthly management accounts, and ensuring trading is within bank and loan facilities.

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