Can you introduce yourself in a few words and tell us about your background ?
My name is Riccardo, Euro Controller and Finance manager at La Marzocco UK.
I’m Italian and I studied economics in Turin, my hometown.
I had the chance to collaborate with the St-Petersburg university, which gave me the chance to go to Russia for a couple of months and teach economics to students. It was one of the highlights of my student life !
I joined PwC as an external auditor, after 6 years at PWC Turin I moved to London and spent 6 years in PwC UK as a senior auditor first and then I was promoted as Audit manager.
After this, I joined a new company, La Marzocco UK as a Finance Manager / Euro controller for all of our european subsidiaries (France, Germany, Spain).
What is your occupation nowadays ?
I’m Euro Controller and Finance Manager of La Marzocco UK. My current missions in my department are to implement new procedures, improve systems, make processes in the finance department more efficient, supporting the development of the company’s business.
There is a lot going on and you need to have a strong base in accounting and finance.
We are growing very quickly, our staff has grown exponentially the last ten years, so naturally we work hard on consolidating this growth.
What are / were the big challenges of your position ?
One of the big challenges of my work as a Finance Manager is to actually manage a team of multiple people located in different countries, with different cultures, backgrounds and expectations.
I do my best to support them, developing their skills, and offering them clarity, clarity of expectations, clarity of deadlines, tasks, goals.
And I have to say that I'm really proud of the work they have accomplished so far.
The next challenge was to further develop a “Financial culture” inside La Marzocco UK. Take the time to sit down and have conversations with stakeholders in order to initiate a switch in the overall philosophy of the company regarding finance in the pursuit of a shared vision : The finance department is a creator of value and a core part of the business.
And finally I will say that one of the general challenges in any finance department is to keep up with changes, changes of processes, technologies, laws. You’ve got to have a certain mentality and understand that changes are inevitable and you must not resist it but see it as an opportunity for improvement.
What did you implement ?
Better Accuracy of the data, meaning data delivered at the right time to the right person. We’ve also implemented new systems thanks to the IT department involvement.
New report for management, sales teams, marketing and others.
New ways of communication with other teams, transparent and efficient.
How did you get here ?
After 10 years at PWC I felt the need to change things around and learn new things.
La Marzocco is a great brand with a very strong appeal and they offered me an opportunity to do more than “simple” accounting.
What is La Marzocco ?
La Marzocco is a manufacturer of premium coffee machines addressing both B2B and B2C customers.
If i had to describe La Marzocco i would say it's a very strong brand with excellent products, you could say it's the Ferrari of coffee machines in a way !
I really like the “Modbar” which is a very cool and innovative product, look it up if you can/want !
The company in itself is growing very fast, so it’s a really dynamic environment to be a part of, and as such attracts many talents. In 2019 there were 469 collaborators, and as of last year we were more than 800.
We’ve almost doubled in size in the span of 3 years.
We are all around the world with a strong présence in the US, Australia, China and Europe.
Our focus right now is to develop the business in France which could be a huge market for us considering the coffee culture of the country while consolidating our current market.
What are the values that drive you at La Marzocco ?
● Excellence
● Integrity
● Innovation
How did you come to work with Impulsa ?
La Marzocco France was established in May 2022, my colleagues in Italy started the conversations with Impulsa around that time because we needed a tax consultant in France.
We were really impressed by your knowledge and your capacity of adaptation regarding the fact that we are a foreign company.
We shared some core values/goals such as accuracy, respect of the deadlines, etc…
As of today I think we’ve established a very good way to operate thanks to the process we’ve put in place.
On which missions ?
● Accounting / TAX (VAT)
● Payroll
Impulsa helped us customize our own accounting and ERP system “SAP” making it opérational for France and in line with the local legislation.
How would you describe the relationships you maintain with your various interlocutors within Impulsa ?
In short : Very positive !
For me there were 2 phases to our collaboration, and for each Impulsa delivered :
- In the beginning Impulsa proved to be very flexible and very skillful which was a big relief because we had just launched in France and there was a lot to do and to structure.
- Nowadays, Impulsa still impresses us by being consistent and efficient.
Edouard, Cyril and Salvatore are true professionals, and it's always a pleasure to interact with them. It’s also great to have Salvatore, who is a native Italian speaker, which enables us to resolve issues quicker.
Do you see the value that the One Stop Shop can bring?
Definitely.
At the moment we’re still small in France but I can definitely see us needing more of your services in the upcoming future. It's a relief to know that we can count on Impulsa for almost everything.
