Group Finance and Administration

The Group Finance and Administration division is a centralised service division that provides a support function to the other divisions within the group. The division comprises the following areas of responsibility:

Financial accounting and corporate reporting

• the collating and production of the group’s interim and annual financial statements;
  
• corporate communications and shareholder reporting;
  
• ensuring compliance with all required accounting standards and statutory requirements; and
  
• liaison with the external auditors.
  

Management accounting

Management accounting is responsible for:

• control of the group’s financial accounting systems and internal controls;
  
• co-ordination and consolidation of all the group’s financial planning, including annual budgets and quarterly re-projections;
  
• divisional financial reporting to enable accurate management decision-making; and
  
• all operational financial reporting at store, area, regional and divisional level.
  

General finance and administration

General finance and administration is responsible for:

• processing and payment of all merchandise, expense and rental transactions;
  
• ensuring all stores deposit the correct amounts daily; and
  
• administration of store and head office inventory and claims.
  

After the initial successful implementation of SAP Financials, it is Group Finance’s intention to investigate the use of other modules within SAP to obtain the full benefits of the integration capabilities of the system.

Treasury

This department is responsible for managing the group’s foreign exchange and funding policies. The department ensures that the group’s funding needs are provided for with adequate credit lines, appropriate financial instruments at the lowest cost and that the daily cash management is optimised. Investments and interest-rate risk are managed within the parameters laid down by the board and in consultation with the Financial Director. The department, in conjunction with the Taxation department, assist with various commercial initiatives that impact on the group.

Taxation

This department is responsible for all aspects of the group’s taxation compliance. By its nature, it is staffed by highly skilled experts who constantly remain abreast of current and pending legislation.

Secretarial and administration

This department is responsible for:

• maintenance of the group’s statutory records;
  
• administration of the Foschini Group Retirement Fund;
  
• administration of the group’s trademarks;
  
• administration relating to the preparation and signing of the group’s store leases;
  
• the group’s compliance function; and
  
• provision of legal assistance/advice to other areas within the group as required.

Risk management

The risk management department is responsible for the following functions:

• managing and controlling the risk management process, as defined by the risk committee and as required by the Code of Corporate Practices and Conduct;
• appropriate insurance placement for the group;
• the administration of all group insurance claims and the compilation of comprehensive loss statistics;
• control over the group business continuity planning process; and
• facilitation of inter-divisional store security meetings as well as the hosting of similar informal meetings with other retailers to allow a cross pollination of loss prevention information and strategies.

A detailed risk analysis is contained in the Corporate Governance report.

Procurement

The group procurement process ensures that best practice is followed in all areas of the purchasing process throughout the group. Quarterly procurement reportbacks are made to the procurement committee, comprising three members of the operating board and two senior managers. In addition, the procurement manager ensures that the BEE procurement strategy as defined by the transformation committee is implemented. Further details of initiatives in this regard are contained in the Sustainability Report.

Group payroll

This department is responsible for the accurate and timeous payment of salaries to over 15 000 of the group’s employees across all employment categories.

Further efficiencies will be achieved through the implementation of a time and attendance and staff scheduling system which is being piloted and will be rolled out to stores in 2008. In addition, the web-based human resources self-service system will be enhanced to further improve service and processing time.