Head of Food & Beverage

Head of Food & Beverage

Location: Worcestershire, with regular travel to multiple sites
Salary: Up to £55,000 per annum, depending on experience
Hours: 39.5 hours per week
Contract: Fixed-term maternity cover

The Opportunity

We are working with an established, family-owned retail and hospitality business to recruit a Head of Food & Beverage on a maternity cover basis.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced hospitality leader to take responsibility for a multi-site restaurant operation, driving commercial performance, developing teams and maintaining exceptional standards of food and customer service.

With five established restaurants and a growing programme of seasonal events, the role also offers the opportunity to influence the wider food offering, bringing together restaurants, butchery, food halls and retail to create a joined-up, high-quality food experience.

The Role

Reporting to the Executive Chair, you will take overall responsibility for the performance and development of restaurant teams across five locations.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Multi-site leadership: Lead and develop Restaurant Managers, Chef Leads and kitchen teams, ensuring consistent standards across all sites.
• Commercial performance: Drive sales, manage labour budgets, control costs and improve margins and profitability.
• Food quality and menu development: Oversee seasonal menu planning, champion fresh, locally sourced ingredients and maintain consistently high food standards.
• Customer experience: Ensure excellent hospitality, attentive service and a welcoming environment across every restaurant.
• Food retail integration: Work with butchery and food hall teams to develop new products and opportunities that connect restaurant dining with retail.
• Supplier management: Negotiate supplier contracts and improve trading terms while maintaining strong supplier relationships.
• Seasonal events: Oversee hospitality operations at seasonal events, ensuring effective planning, staffing and service delivery.
• People development: Coach and motivate teams, develop future leaders and maintain a positive, engaged working culture.
• Operational improvement: Identify ways to reduce waste, improve efficiency, strengthen stock control and enhance profitability.
• Food safety and compliance: Ensure high standards of food hygiene, allergen management, health and safety and operational compliance.

About You

You'll be an experienced food and hospitality leader who can balance hands-on operational management with strong commercial and strategic thinking.

You'll ideally have:

• At least five years' experience in a role combining kitchen management and front-of-house service delivery.
• Experience leading restaurant teams across multiple sites or managing a complex hospitality operation.
• A strong understanding of menu development, food costing, stock control and waste reduction.
• A proven track record of managing budgets, improving margins and delivering commercial results.
• Excellent leadership skills, with the ability to coach, motivate and develop managers and teams.
• Experience negotiating with suppliers and managing purchasing arrangements.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to work collaboratively across departments.
• Confidence using EPOS systems, analysing P&L reports and making commercially informed decisions.
• A genuine passion for fresh, seasonal produce and an outstanding customer experience.

Experience in butchery, kitchen design, seasonal events or hospitality training programmes would be an advantage.

You'll be commercially minded, adaptable and comfortable working in a family-owned business where quality, relationships and teamwork are important.

What's on Offer?

• Salary of up to £55,000, depending on experience.
• Discretionary annual profit-share bonus of up to 2-5%.
• 6% employer pension contribution.
• Private medical insurance following successful completion of probation.
• Life insurance worth twice your annual salary.
• 33 days' annual holiday, including bank holidays.
• Colleague discounts of up to 25% across most retail categories and 50% in restaurants.
• Funded training and development opportunities.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Free parking across all sites.

Interested?

If you're an experienced food and hospitality leader looking for your next challenge and have the skills to lead a multi-site operation during a period of maternity cover, we'd love to hear from you.

Please apply with your CV to find out more.

By applying for this role, you are consenting for C2 Recruitment to hold and process your data in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations. Your information will always be handled securely and professionally.

To view other great vacancies at C2 Recruitment, please visit our website.