Cost Controller - Hospitality & Beverage Operations

About the role

Career Directions Limited is looking for a hands-on, analytical Cost Controller to strengthen food, beverage, wine and spirits cost control, inventory accuracy and profitability across hospitality operations. The role monitors actual costs against standards, reconciles sales and stock consumption, investigates losses and recommends practical improvements, working closely with Finance, Operations, Kitchen, Restaurant, Bar, Stores and Purchasing teams.

Key responsibilities

• Monitor food, beverage, wine and spirits costs against standards and budgets, and analyse cost-of-sales, gross profit and contribution margin variances.
• Maintain recipe and beverage costing, standard yields, portion sizes and pour measures, updating them when purchase prices, recipes or serving sizes change.
• Reconcile POS sales and expected recipe consumption against actual inventory usage and ERP records, investigating missing postings, incorrect units of measure and unexplained variances.
• Review receipts, stock issues, outlet transfers, returns and stock adjustments, and coordinate periodic and surprise stock counts.
• Monitor stock ageing, slow-moving products and expiry risks, and investigate wastage, spoilage, breakages, shrinkage and over-pouring.
• Ensure staff consumption, complimentary items, promotions and other non-sale stock issues are authorised and recorded.
• Review purchasing and receiving controls, including purchase-price variances and quantity and price checks against approved orders.
• Maintain item costs, recipes, units of measure and stock information in ERP and POS systems with controlled changes and audit trails.
• Prepare cost, stock, yield, wastage and outlet profitability reports, recommend corrective actions and support budgeting, forecasting, menu pricing and cost optimisation.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Hospitality Management or a related field.
• CPA, ACCA, CMA or CIMA qualification, or progress towards certification, is an added advantage.
• Three to five years of cost-control experience in hospitality, restaurants, food and beverage or another inventory-intensive environment.
• Experience with recipe costing, yield analysis, portion and pour controls, stock reconciliation and loss investigations.
• Experience across multiple outlets is an added advantage.

Required skills

• ERP, POS and inventory management systems; familiarity with Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory and Loyverse POS is an added advantage.
• Strong Excel skills, including reconciliations, pivot tables, lookup functions and analysis of sales and inventory data.
• Numerical and analytical skills, attention to detail, integrity and strong communication with Finance and operational teams.