Remuneration: Competitive salary subject to experience and skill level. After a probationary period there will be a range of benefits such as eligibility to join the Company Pension Scheme, DIS, Income Protection and staff purchase discounts.

The Company:
Caterham Cars is the One of the UK’s most successful sports car manufacturers and has been selling the Seven since 1973. Over the decades Caterham have continued to refine and enhance the design, whilst always respecting the brilliance of Colin Chapman’s original lightweight formula. From 2012 the company will also benefit from the global exposure of the Caterham F1 Team. This is a unique opportunity to work for an iconic British motor company that is both manufacturer and retailer, and also a world leader in amateur motorsport racing.

The Role:
Working at the Dartford office, the Assistant Financial Controller supports the Chief Financial Officer to ensure a smooth and effectively run department. The finance team in Dartford is only small and the successful applicant will be expected to get involved at sharp end and perform many of the duties themselves.

Duties will include (but are not limited to) the following:

Supervisory Role

• Supervising of two full time staff members (Purchase Ledger & Accounts Assistant), providing assistance, support and mentoring where necessary.
• Ensuring that the necessary tasks associated with Purchase Ledger payment runs, Bank Reconciliations and issuing Sales Statements are being followed, and to cover these roles during staff holidays..

Month End

• Assisting with the preparation of draft monthly management accounts for Caterham Cars Limited and Caterham Cars Group Limited, based on pre-agreed reporting deadlines;
• Investigating the major variances from budget in the principal cost centres represented in the draft management accounts and providing explanations thereof;
• Preparing and processing monthly journals, accruals and prepayments.
• Analysis of service cost codes
• Maintaining the fixed asset register and posting depreciation monthly
• Preparation of paperwork required for exported cars paid via Letter of Credit and ancillary revenues such as sponsorship and rent;

Nominal Ledger

• Inputting of journals
• Monthly balance sheet reconciliations and analyses (control accounts, asset and stock registers);
• Analysis of postings to certain accounts
• Assisting with annual stock-take

Systems Support

• Be the primary point of contact between the company, its accounting package support team, and other members of staff
• To gain a full understanding of the functionality of the accounting system and how it can be enhanced to support the business
• To manage the month end procedures and maintenance routines
• To provide assistance to other staff members (both Finance and non-Finance) in the operation of the package

Year End (31st December)

• Assisting in the preparation of year-end audit files, and the production of year-end schedules for Audit & Tax
• Acting as the principal point of contact for auditors in the planning phase and during the audit when dealing with their enquiries;

Payroll

• Providing all relevant information on employee remuneration (including the calculation of staff commissions) and pensions to the company’s payroll bureau on a monthly basis, and acting as the principal point of contact with the bureau and in the first instance with staff, in dealing with any payroll queries;
• Monthly preparation of Pension Schedules, and submission of reconciled payments to Pensions Provider
• Submission of all HMRC Reporting requirements, including monthly PAYE/NI payments, CSA, and Student Loans.
• Submission of annual P11D Returns.

HM Revenue & Customs

• Preparing and submitting Intrastats and ECSL reports monthly

Whilst the majority of the work will be carried out at the Dartford offices, there may be occasional requirements to travel to our other offices in Caterham, Surrey; Westbury, Wiltshire and East Shilton, Leicestershire.

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate:

• 4-5 years relevant work experience in a similar role.
• Have a high degree of self-motivation, and be able to work on tasks unsupervised.
• Be flexible and willing to work extra hours as and when required.
• Have a demonstrable ability to work as part of a team, and be comfortable dealing with non Finance staff and senior management.

Other criteria / areas of benefit which will be of particular interest are:

• Formal accountancy qualification (minimum of AAT)
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Excel
• Knowledge of Syspro
• An empathy towards the business and its traditions

If you wish to apply for this role please submit your CV and a covering letter* explaining why you feel you have the necessary experience to work for Caterham, and what you would bring to the role…

*please note, we cannot accept applications over the telephone. We are also unable to accept applications from agencies.

Download Issue 3 of Caterham Notes here.

We are pleased to invite you all to our special open day at Caterham Midlands (near Leicester) this Sunday 13th May. In addition to being able to follow the Spanish Grand Prix live on a large screen, attendees will be able to get stuck in to a hog roast lunch. If even that isn’t enough to encourage you to come and visit us on a sunny spring weekend (erm… maybe), we will be displaying a full line-up of cars including the Seven range, the new SP/300.R and even last year’s Caterham Formula One car. There is also the opportunity to test drive one of our road cars, although this is by appointment only*

The event will start from 10am and go on until approximately 4pm , with most people aiming to arrive for approximately 12 pm to enjoy a hog roast before the race starts. The address for Caterham Midlands’ facilities along with directions and a map can be found here.

Attendance is free, there will be free tea and refreshments and the hog roast is £3 per person. There will also be an ice cream van on hand for anyone with a sweet tooth!

We hope to see lots of you on Sunday to help us cheer on the Caterham F1 Team!

Best wishes,

The Caterham Cars Team

*please contact Damian Gravely on 01883 333700 to book a test drive.

For more information on the SP/300.R visit the website or register for more information

It may sound like the recipe for a nightmare car-purchasing experience, but the car that trackday operator, Jonny Leroux, is offering for sale is, ironically, probably better cared for than most vehicles on the road.

Mr Leroux, director of Caterham Cars’ trackday partner, Bookatrack.com, is putting a Caterham Superlight, one of eight on the Bookatrack fleet, up for sale (or quiet retirement) after six hard years pounding the circuits at the hands of eager trackday customers.

The striking black car, which is also notable for being the last Superlight ever installed with the Rover K Series engine, can be yours for a price tag of £10,000.

Since it was registered in March 2006, the S3-spec Superlight hasn’t had the easiest of lives, having got through:

• 157,500 track miles
• 600 trackdays at the hands of 1,000 customers
• 1,575,000 high-speed gear changes
• 480 new tyres
• 54,000 litres of unleaded fuel
• Approximately 154 million wheel revolutions and
• 300 brake pads

The Caterham Seven was recently revealed as one of the top 10 depreciation-busting cars on the road, retaining 61.1% of its original value after three years.*

Caterham Motorsport Manager, Simon Lambert, said: “This car has had a tougher life than most in terms of how hard it’s been driven but, ironically, because it’s been owned by Bookatrack, it’s probably been better looked after than most cars on the road.”

Mr Leroux said: “It’s been a faithful servant for us at Bookatrack.com and a fantastic advert for the durability and reliability of Caterham Sevens. But now it’s time for this car to relax, take things a little slower and grow old gracefully.”

Please visit the website or call 01883 333 700 for more information.

The second sign, though surely less ominous, is that I now prefer listening to Radio 2 rather than Radio 1 – perhaps this is because I recognise the DJ voices from when I listened to them on Radio 1 some thirty years ago and, more importantly, I can actually understand what they are saying.

And finally, most conclusively of all, I am a Radio 4 Today programme addict, although I am still coming to terms with Evan Davies and his sometimes lacksadaisical approach to interviewing.

Anyway, not only am I now a reincarnation of my father, I am a grumpy version of him too! Driving into work this morning I heard a piece on Radio 4 about a recently widowed single mother (with a young daughter) who lives in Waltham Forest (a north-east part of London – close to the Olympic Park).

The lady had recently received a letter from her council housing authority advising her that, unless she accepted alternative accommodation for herself and her daughter, it would absolve itself of its responsibilities to her in finding suitable, alternative accommodation. The council signed off by saying they felt this was a reasonable request. What irked me (and the lady of course) was the fact that the accommodation on offer was in Walsall, north-west of Birmingham – about 130 miles away from where she presently lives.

Now I know we are facing severe austerity measures and needs must and all that, but are we losing the perspective of what is reasonable these days? Waltham Forest and Walsall? Perhaps not much in common with the two places other than the fact that they both begin with ‘Wal’ and they are both fairly sparse on sight-seeing opportunities (no offense intended). Fiscal tightening aside and no wish or desire to start a political debate, I am troubled with what people today come to expect as being reasonable.

Fortunately our customers are generally very reasonable; of course, we have instances where, occasionally, we do not meet a customer’s expectation, despite our best endeavours and then, more often than not, our customer will accept our shortcoming with grace and balance (there are the odd exceptions!)

However, I do run a complex business and I am responsible for the livelihood of over 100 people so, when my stress reaches apoplectic levels, I have to keep reminding myself of what Andy Noble, my UK Sales and Marketing director, once told me “……..it’s only cars!” I think that is reasonable ………and I think the lady is being treated unreasonably. There. I said it.

Earlier in the month, we hosted our annual dealer meeting for our international partners in the facility, which also houses Caterham Technology and Innovation in Norfolk. The event was very well attended, with over 25 dealers including those from as far afield as Japan, China and Canada. Thank you to all of you who attended.

The agenda was intensive and the day’s proceedings also included a visit to the Caterham F1 Team facility in Hingham, as well as a test session in the new Caterham Lola SP/300.R at Snetterton. How life has changed over the last 12 months!

Speaking of the SP/300.R, we have this month made the first customer delivery….to our US partner Dyson Racing based in upstate New York. And, has luck would have it (no I mean thanks to superb planning on our part), the delivery coincides with a review of the SP/300.R on a US-based automotive website, The article can be found here.

The Motorsport team are presently on full throttle (one of my best!) as the Caterham Motorsport UK season has started in earnest. The opener was at Silverstone at the end of March and, this month, we were at Oulton Park and Aintree (Academy Sprint). I have mentioned before that our Academy media partner is Octane magazine and its editor, David Lillywhite, is an enthusiastic participant. You can read about David’s impressions and opinions following his first outing in his Academy race car here.

Finally, I’d like to celebrate service anniversaries of fellow Caterham colleagues; namely, Mick Forbes – Dartford Production (22 years), Richard Tuplin – Dartford Production Team Leader (5 years) and Gary Williams – Westbury Production (3 years). Thank you for your support over the years.

Ansar

The US version of the Caterham and Lola-designed car will be manufactured to specifications appropriate to that market, with final assembly taking place at Dyson Racing’s facility in Poughkeepsie, NY, following receipt of its first vehicle, which will be fully-built by Caterham at its Dartford factory.

Despatched today (Monday, 23 April), Dyson Racing’s SP/300.R will be deployed as the company’s demonstrator car, with further vehicles due to land Stateside just a few weeks later.

Dyson Racing has been heavily involved in the development of the SP/300.R, having sent former Le Mans 24 Hours winner, Guy Smith and Technical Director, Peter Weston, to Caterham’s test sessions during development.

Team Vice President and Sporting Director, Chris Dyson, said: “Like many of our customers, we can’t wait to get our hands on the SP/300.R. As in the UK, the popularity of track day driving is rocketing and the new vehicle is ideal for anybody who wants a reliable and cost-effective vehicle with very serious but accessible performance.”

Caterham Cars’ International Business Development Manager, David Ridley, said: “Working with a very successful outfit like Dyson Racing has been a pleasure. They will be first to receive the SP/300.R and we are confident that their customers will love the car’s performance and low running costs.

“Dyson’s expertise in the US market is second-to-none and, even before a fully-built car has arrived on U.S. shores, demand has been strong.”

Dyson continued: “The SP/300.R is an amazing car. It mirrors the technology and the appearance of the Lola Le Mans prototypes that our team campaigns in the American Le Mans Series, but has been carefully-designed to be affordable.”

For more information about the Caterham SP/300.R please visit the website. US-based customers should visit the www.dysonracing.com or email Dyson racing.