News & Insights
That's The Spirit
1st September 2024
Conversation between Amanda McCulloch and Craig Buchan, Finance Director The Cabrach Trust
Introduction
Walk us through your career to date.
I always think I have followed a “normal” progression within Management Accounting working my way up from Cost Accountant with a Frozen Food Company, through Management Accountancy with McVitie’s, Business Partnering with BAE Systems and Scottish Widows and ending up in Operations Finance Management with William Grant and Sons, Johnson Matthey and LumiraDX. None of my experience has been wasted, culminating in the Finance Director role at The Cabrach Trust and The Cabrach Distillery CIC.
You describe yourself as an interpreter - what does that mean in your day-to-day work?
The main thing about Operations Finance for me is being able to break things of a financial nature down into operational terms and following that through to practical steps.
For example, if you talk about "cost of make" changing by x pence per litre, that doesn’t tell anyone why or how to affect it in future. If you can turn that into something like, “in this batch we pre-heated the stills to a higher temperature, therefore the gas consumption on this batch was far less” that gives the operational team more insight into how they can affect financial outputs, but using their operational knowledge.
It’s all about making the links between these factors. It’s not easy, and I am still learning every day, building my own operational knowledge as I strive to make those new connections and understand the financial dependencies.
What attracted you to the FD position at The Cabrach Trust?
This position was of particular interest to me, as it played on my passion for the Whisky Industry, but from a philanthropic point of view.
The opportunity to use the skills and experience I have built in commercial environments, but for a third-sector organisation was very attractive.
I was excited to set the direction and pace of the finance function, so being ultimately, and for the foreseeable future, singularly responsible for end-to-end finance was a hugely attractive proposition. I was also aware of The Cabrach Trust from my previous role at William Grant and Sons and understood the importance of this place and people to the legacy of the family, so being able to contribute to that is something special.
Relocating to a rural location isn't for everyone - share your best bits.
Rural locations aren’t for everyone, that’s true, but I would much rather have a 20-minute commute looking over rolling fields and hills than spending that time wedged into a city centre bus, or a train. The people of The Cabrach are all so warm and welcoming, and stopping to help someone who might be moving sheep between fields, or erecting a fence gives you a sense of community and feeling part of their lives.
When I lived in the centre of Edinburgh, I barely knew or spoke to people who lived in the same block of flats, but here I know people from a wide area and interact with them all frequently. I’ve taken the step now of buying a home in the local area and I look forward to moving into it in the next few weeks.
Engagement with TMM Executive
How were you supported during the application process?
Amanda was such a good listener, and sometimes what should’ve been a 5-minute phone call would turn into 10, 15, 20. It was a very non-pressured space and that gave me the freedom to express what I was looking for without needing to be moulded to fit a profile, or repeat stock responses in interviews. I think Amanda took the time to understand who I was and what I wanted from my next role and astutely appreciated the commonality between what The Cabrach Trust wanted and the personalities within the Trust and how our needs and approaches were matched.
Describe the benefit you felt from engaging with TMM Executive?
It felt like a very non-pressured and relaxed space, giving me freedom to express what I was looking for from the role without being fed a party line to repeat to interviewers.
I think this relaxed approach allowed Amanda to make the call on my suitability for The Cabrach Trust, as well as the suitability of the role to who I was and what I needed.
Impact and Results
What milestones have you achieved over the last 12 months?
We have a saying here that I spend 80% of my time on The Cabrach Distillery and the other 80% on The Cabrach Trust!
There has been so much to get stuck into, with regulatory approvals for creating a distillery, creating processes that didn’t exist and reviewing the provision of outsourced professional services. Many of these things either existed or were taken care of by others in my previous roles, so at times there has been a daunting gradient of learning, but when you strike something off your list, you can take a moment to survey the cliff-face you’ve just climbed before turning your focus to the next one rising ahead of you.
It has also been necessary to step outside a finance brief looking at e-commerce and website builds, commercial, marketing and procurement, community engagement and playing active parts in Trust events.
You will regularly find me helping in the kitchen at community events, running stalls at these events and even taking part in entertainment – I addressed the haggis at this year’s Cabrach Burns’ Supper, for instance! And let’s not forget the spectrum of tasks also includes things like emptying the dog bins on The Cabrach Trust’s Discovery Trail along the River Deveron – truly embodying the “mucking in” attitude needed for this role!
Lessons Learned and Future Plans
What were the valuable lessons learned throughout this recruitment process?
I think the most valuable thing I learned was not to change who you are just to fit into the ideal you think a recruiter is looking for you to be. It won’t take long for you to be found out if your interview personality isn’t your regular personality.
If you continue to be true to your own identity and are open and honest about what you want, the right role will come for you, and that’s something I think the process with TMME was very good at nurturing.
How has the job compared to your expectations?
The role has been challenging at times - but in a very good way. It very much suits my desire to always be learning new things. There are times when you will doubt yourself and your ability to deliver something way outside your comfort zone, but the support of the team and the Trustees to build your self-belief and help you drive through the challenge has been tremendous. I also have a great mentor relationship with all the non-executive directors of the CIC who have a vast range of experience, from finance, to marketing and of course production.
One of the other non-finance activities I was heavily involved in was the creation of The Feering Early Harvest, the first release from The Cabrach Distillery crafted from casks donated by neighbouring distilleries. I assisted Alan Winchester in nosing and creating the recipe you will find in the bottles. An amazing experience for a finance guy who is also a fan.
What's the next thing you hope to accomplish for the Trust and Distillery?
The next major milestone is the operational start for The Cabrach Distillery and ensuring everything has been considered and aligned for that. The biggest facets of my contribution to that are aligning areas of the supply chain, ensuring the compliance requirements have been satisfied accurately, and setting up end-to-end financial processes. Another cliff-face of challenges all to be overcome in a very small window from now until first production.
