Travis Perkins hosted 25 students from the University of Northampton as part of a key assignment in their MSc Accounting and Finance degree.
The visit was hosted at the Group’s 473,000 square feet distribution centre in Brackmills. This holds over £50 million worth of building materials and makes 400+ deliveries a day to over 800 Travis Perkins and Benchmarx branches across the UK.
It had been arranged to help prepare the students for a 2,000-word management report they have been tasked with writing as part of their coursework. This will involve an analysis of how the financial statements in the Travis Perkins plc annual report demonstrate compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and the students’ commentary on the Group’s financial performance and health for 2018 versus 2017.
While the company’s Supply Chain Manager, Nicholas Blundell, Distribution General Manager, Guy Sambrook and Project Manager at Brackmills, Roy Spencer, gave the students an insight intro supply chain and distribution, as well as a guided tour of the distribution facility, Head of Finance – Corporate, Zak Newmark and Luke Kelly, Group Chief Accountant, gave an introduction to the company and shared knowledge about financial reporting at Travis Perkins.
Luke commented that “It was great to share with students who we are as a business, and how our operational activity at our branches and warehouses drives our in-house reporting. We recently changed the way we account for leases, which is now a requirement from IFRS 16, and so this was a chance for the students to understand how we have implemented this requirement into our organisation.”
Zak added: “At Travis Perkins we are always looking to secure the best talent for our business, and engaging with a local university on events like this is a great opportunity to get closer to graduates who may be looking for job opportunities once they have completed their studies.”
Senior Lecturer at The University of Northampton, Dalbir Khangura said: “We want the students to use this experience from a local company on our doorstep to enhance their ability to review and assess actual industry financial statements. Students were given the opportunity during the day to quiz the financial reporting professionals in order to fully interpret the statements. A tour of the distribution centre gave the students a deeper perspective of the company.”
