Position Overview
Ladurée SA is seeking a highly analytical and detail-oriented Cost Controller / Inventory Accountant to oversee food and beverage costing, inventory control, recipe costing and financial stock management across the business.
The successful candidate will have strong experience within the Food & Beverage, hospitality, restaurant or luxury pâtisserie environment, with practical knowledge of Bill of Materials (BOM), recipe creation and costing, inventory management, stock reconciliations, food cost analysis and gross margin control.
This role will be responsible for ensuring that Ladurée maintains accurate product costs, effective inventory controls and commercially sustainable margins while maintaining the quality and integrity of the brand’s products.
The ideal candidate combines strong accounting and analytical capabilities with a practical understanding of how kitchens, pastry production, restaurants, cafés and food & beverage operations function.
Key Responsibilities
Food & Beverage Cost Controller
· Monitor and control food, beverage and production costs across Ladurée operations.
· Calculate and monitor actual and theoretical food and beverage costs.
· Analyse food cost percentages and identify variances against budget and target margins.
· Investigate significant cost variances and provide clear explanations and corrective recommendations.
· Monitor the impact of supplier price increases, wastage, portion sizes, yield and recipe changes on product profitability.
· Identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary costs without compromising Ladurée’s quality standards.
· Prepare regular food cost and margin reports for management.
Recipe Costing & Bill of Materials (BOM)
· Develop, maintain and regularly review accurate Bill of Materials (BOMs) for all relevant products and menu items.
· Create and maintain detailed recipe cards containing ingredients, quantities, yields, portions and associated costs.
· Calculate the cost per recipe, portion and finished product.
· Ensure recipes accurately reflect current ingredient and supplier costs.
· Review recipe costs whenever ingredient prices, quantities, suppliers or specifications change.
· Work closely with the Executive Chef, Executive Pastry Chef and operational teams to ensure recipes and production specifications are accurately captured.
· Maintain accurate costing for pâtisserie, bakery, savoury, beverage and other F&B products.
· Ensure wastage, yield and production losses are appropriately considered when calculating product costs.
Inventory Management & Stock Control
· Oversee inventory control processes across branches, kitchens, pastry production and other relevant F&B operations.
· Maintain accurate records of stock received, transferred, consumed, produced and written off.
· Conduct and/or coordinate regular physical stock counts.
· Reconcile physical stock counts against system quantities and investigate discrepancies.
· Monitor stock variances, shrinkage, wastage and unexplained losses.
· Ensure stock movements between branches and departments are accurately recorded.
· Monitor stock levels and identify slow-moving, excess or at-risk inventory.
· Ensure appropriate controls are in place for high-value and high-risk inventory items.
· Review stock adjustments and write-offs for accuracy and appropriate authorisation.
Purchasing & Supplier Cost Analysis
· Work closely with Procurement, Finance, Chefs and Operations to monitor supplier pricing.
· Maintain accurate and current ingredient and product cost databases.
· Compare supplier pricing and identify significant cost movements.
· Monitor the financial impact of supplier price increases on recipes and product margins.
· Ensure approved supplier prices are correctly reflected in costing systems.
· Identify discrepancies between purchase orders, supplier invoices, received quantities and system costs.
· Assist with supplier price negotiations by providing accurate cost and usage information where required.
Production & Yield Control
· Monitor production quantities against sales and operational requirements.
· Analyse production yields and identify unusual variances.
· Review ingredient usage against expected recipe quantities.
· Monitor production wastage and investigate abnormal losses.
· Work with culinary and pastry teams to improve yield and minimise unnecessary waste.
· Ensure production recipes and batch quantities are accurately reflected in the costing system.
Sales & Gross Margin Analysis
· Analyse product-level profitability and gross margins.
· Compare theoretical food cost against actual food cost.
· Identify products with declining or unacceptable margins.
· Provide management with recommendations regarding pricing, portion sizes, recipes or purchasing.
· Assist with menu engineering and product profitability analysis.
· Support the Finance and Operations teams with pricing decisions and new product launches.
Financial Reconciliations & Reporting
· Perform regular inventory reconciliations.
· Reconcile stock movements between physical inventory and accounting/inventory systems.
· Prepare monthly inventory and cost-of-sales reports.
· Analyse cost-of-sales movements and investigate unusual variances.
· Assist with month-end stock and cost-of-sales processes.
· Prepare management reports relating to:
· Food cost percentage
· Beverage cost percentage
· Inventory value
· Stock variances
· Wastage
· Gross profit margins
· Recipe costs
· Supplier price movements
· Cost of sales
· Provide accurate supporting information for financial reporting and audits.
New Product Development
· Work alongside the Executive Chef, Executive Pastry Chef and Product Development teams when new products are introduced.
· Cost new recipes and establish accurate product margins before launch.
· Develop BOMs and recipe specifications for new products.
· Ensure new products are correctly loaded onto the relevant systems.
· Assess the financial impact of recipe changes, ingredient substitutions and supplier changes.
· Support management in determining commercially appropriate selling prices.
Systems & Data Integrity
· Maintain accurate inventory, recipe, BOM and costing information within the relevant ERP, POS, inventory or accounting systems.
· Ensure product codes, units of measure, pack sizes and conversion factors are accurate.
· Regularly audit system data for inaccuracies or outdated costs.
· Ensure recipes and inventory records are properly maintained and updated.
· Assist with system improvements and automation of inventory and costing processes.
Compliance & Internal Controls
· Establish and maintain effective inventory and cost-control procedures.
· Ensure stock control processes are consistently applied across all locations.
· Monitor adherence to authorised purchasing, receiving, transfer and stock adjustment procedures.
· Identify potential control weaknesses, wastage or financial irregularities and escalate appropriately.
· Support internal and external audits by providing accurate inventory and costing documentation.
· Maintain appropriate documentation and audit trails for stock adjustments and write-offs.
Key Performance Areas (KPAs)
The successful candidate will be measured against the following key areas:
1. Food & Beverage Cost Control
· Achievement of agreed food and beverage cost targets.
· Accuracy of theoretical versus actual food cost analysis.
2. Inventory Accuracy
· Accuracy of physical stock counts versus system balances.
· Reduction of unexplained stock variances and shrinkage.
3. Recipe & BOM Accuracy
· 100% accurate and up-to-date recipe costing and BOM information.
· Timely updating of costs following supplier price changes.
4. Gross Margin Management
· Accurate product-level costing and margin analysis.
· Identification and resolution of products with unacceptable margins.
5. Wastage & Yield Management
· Monitoring and reduction of unnecessary food and production wastage.
· Accurate yield calculations.
6. Reporting
· Timely submission of accurate monthly cost, stock and variance reports.
· Clear identification of significant financial variances.
7. Internal Controls
· Consistent implementation and monitoring of inventory and cost-control procedures.
· Accurate documentation of stock adjustments, transfers and write-offs.
Minimum Requirements
· Bachelor’s degree or diploma in Accounting, Finance, Cost Accounting, Management Accounting, Hospitality Management or a related field.
· Minimum 3–5 years’ relevant experience in cost control, inventory accounting, stock control or management accounting.
· Proven experience within the Food & Beverage, hospitality, restaurant, hotel, catering, bakery or pâtisserie industry.
· Strong practical experience with recipe costing and BOM creation.
· Demonstrable experience calculating food costs, portion costs and gross margins.
· Strong understanding of inventory accounting and cost-of-sales principles.
· Experience conducting stock counts and investigating stock variances.
· Advanced Excel skills, including formulas, PivotTables, lookups and data analysis.
· Experience working with POS, ERP, inventory management or accounting systems.
Essential Technical Experience
The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate practical experience in the following areas:
· Food and beverage costing
· Recipe costing
· Bill of Materials (BOM)
· Recipe creation and maintenance
· Ingredient costing
· Portion and yield calculations
· Inventory valuation
· Stock reconciliations
· Cost-of-sales calculations
· Food cost percentage analysis
· Gross margin analysis
· Variance analysis
· Wastage monitoring
· Supplier price analysis
· Production costing
· Menu/product profitability
· Monthly inventory reporting
· Physical stock counts
Preferred Experience
Experience within any of the following environments will be advantageous:
· Luxury hospitality
· Premium restaurants
· French or European pâtisserie
· Bakery or central production facilities
· Hotel F&B operations
· Multi-branch restaurant or café groups
· Luxury retail food environments
· High-volume pastry production
· ERP/inventory management implementations
Experience working with multi-site F&B operations will be highly advantageous
Knowledge & Competencies
The ideal candidate will demonstrate:
· Strong numerical and analytical ability.
· Exceptional attention to detail.
· Commercial awareness.
· Strong understanding of F&B operations.
· Excellent Excel and data-analysis skills.
· Strong problem-solving ability.
· Ability to identify discrepancies and investigate root causes.
· Ability to work accurately under strict deadlines.
· Strong organisational and time-management skills.
· Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
· Ability to work collaboratively with Finance, Procurement, Operations and Culinary teams.
· High level of integrity and confidentiality.
· Ability to challenge operational teams professionally where financial controls are not being followed.
Key Stakeholders
The position will work closely with:
· Finance Department
· Executive Management
· Operations Management
· Executive Chef
· Executive Pastry Chef
· Restaurant & Café Managers
· Procurement/Purchasing
· Warehouse/Stores
· Production Teams
· Suppliers
· External Auditors
Personal Attributes
The successful candidate should be:
· Highly analytical and commercially minded.
· Meticulous and exceptionally detail-oriented.
· Proactive rather than purely reactive.
· Comfortable challenging discrepancies and asking questions.
· Strong enough operationally to work directly with culinary and production teams.
· Able to translate financial information into practical operational recommendations.
· Passionate about accuracy, efficiency and cost optimisation.
· Comfortable working in a fast-paced, luxury F&B environment.
· Professional and aligned with the standards, values and presentation expected of the Ladurée brand.
Position Outcome
The primary objective of the Cost Controller / Inventory Accountant is to ensure that Ladurée has accurate visibility and control over the cost of every product it produces and sells.
The successful candidate will ensure that recipes are accurately costed, BOMs are maintained, inventory is properly controlled, stock variances are identified and investigated, and management has reliable information to make informed decisions regarding pricing, purchasing, production, wastage and profitability.
This position therefore plays a critical role in protecting Ladurée’s margins while supporting the brand’s commitment to exceptional product quality and operational excellence.
Work Location: In person
