Area Manager

Wildwood Restaurants; Taunton; On-site; GBP 52,000 - 62,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Short term incentives

Long term incentives

Benefits package

Job summary

Wildwood Restaurants is seeking an experienced Area Manager to oversee roughly six restaurants across the South West of England. Reporting to the Head of Operations, you will drive commercial performance, inspire leadership teams and ensure every restaurant delivers exceptional guest experiences alongside strong financial results.

You will coach General Managers and Head Chefs, develop teams, and partner with Area Chefs to elevate standards.

Qualifications

• Two years' experience in a regional or multi-site hospitality leadership role.
• Proven track record of improving EBITDA, sales growth and overall business performance.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience managing multi-site P&L, labour costs and profitability.
• Ability to analyse performance data and turn insight into actionable plans.
• Passion for coaching and developing leaders and teams.
• Experience building succession plans and high-performing teams.

Responsibilities

• Drive sales growth, margin, labour control, EBITDA, and operational excellence across your region.
• Lead, coach and develop General Managers, Head Chefs and restaurant leadership teams.
• Create a culture of accountability, engagement, ownership and collaboration.
• Deliver regional business plans and achieve commercial targets.
• Monitor KPIs, identify trends and implement action plans to maximise performance.
• Champion guest experiences through high standards of food, service and brand execution.
• Ensure food safety, health & safety, licensing and policies are followed while maintaining operations.

Skills

Leadership

Coaching

People management

Stakeholder management

Multi-site P&L

Travel flexibility

Communication

Driving licence

Job description

Lead. Inspire. Grow.

At Wildwood, we're writing our next chapter.

Now proudly part of the Bow Street Group, we are investing in our restaurants, our people, our technology and our future. We are looking for an experienced Area Manager to play a pivotal role in delivering our strategic ambitions across the South West.

If you are a commercially driven leader who thrives on developing people, building high-performing teams and delivering outstanding business results, this is your opportunity to make a real impact.

Why Wildwood?

We are passionate about creating vibrant restaurants where our guests come together to enjoy fresh Italian-inspired food, handcrafted cocktails and genuine hospitality, brought to life by the incredible people who make Wildwood what it is.

Everything we do is guided by our three core values:

• Creativity - We challenge the norm and continuously look for better ways of doing things.
• Ownership - We take responsibility, deliver results and make things happen.
• Collaboration - We achieve more by working together and supporting one another.

If these values resonate with you, we would love to hear from you.

The role

Reporting directly to the Head of Operations, you will oversee a portfolio of approximately six restaurants across the South West of England.

You will be responsible for driving commercial performance, inspiring leadership teams and ensuring every restaurant consistently delivers incredible guest experiences followed by strong financial results.

This is a highly visible leadership role where you will spend time coaching, supporting and challenging your General Managers and Head Chefs to achieve their full potential.

One of the things that sets Wildwood apart is the support you will receive. Rather than managing every operational challenge alone, you will work in close partnership with our experienced Area Chefs, combining operational and culinary expertise to develop teams, elevate standards and deliver outstanding guest experiences. Together, you will create high-performing restaurants where operational excellence and exceptional food quality go hand in hand.

What You Will Be Doing

• You'll be responsible for:
• Driving sales growth, delivering margin, labour control, EBITDA performance, and overall operational excellence across your region.
• Leading, coaching and developing General Managers, Head Chefs and restaurant leadership teams to build confident, high-performing businesses.
• Creating a culture of accountability, engagement, ownership and collaboration.
• Delivering regional business plans and consistently achieving commercial targets.
• Monitoring financial and operational KPIs, identifying trends and implementing effective action plans to maximise performance.
• Championing exceptional guest experiences through consistently high standards of food, service, hospitality and brand execution. Overseeing customer feedback and ensuring that is acted upon quickly and effectively.
• Ensuring all restaurants maintain outstanding operational standards and full compliance with food safety, health & safety, licensing and company policies, whilst monitoring maintainances and repairs in the restaurants
• Building strong succession plans and developing future leaders across the region.
• Supporting ad hoc projects like refurbishments, menu launches and wider business initiatives, ensuring changes are delivered successfully and delivering expected project paybacks.
• Building strong relationships across Operations, People, Marketing, IT, Finance and Support Centre teams to deliver shared business objectives.

You'll Bring

What we're looking for

• A minimum of two years' experience in a regional or multi-site hospitality leadership role.
• A proven track record of improving EBITDA, sales growth and overall business performance.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience managing multi-site P&L performance, labour costs and profitability.
• The ability to analyse performance data and turn insight into clear, measurable action plans.
• A genuine passion for coaching and developing General Managers, Head Chefs and future leaders.
• Experience building succession plans, leadership capability and high-performing teams.
• A solid understanding of food safety, health & safety and employment legislation within a multi-site hospitality environment.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to influence and challenge constructively at every level.
• A hands-on leadership style with exceptional organisational and prioritisation skills.
• Flexibility to travel regularly across the South West and support evenings and weekends when required.
• A full UK driving licence and access to your own vehicle (desirable).
• A love of food is essential with a strong desire to deliver consistent quality and standard.

What's in it for you

• Earnings package up to £62,000, plus participation in short term and long term incentive plans and benefits.
• A genuine opportunity to shape the future of a growing hospitality brand.
• The autonomy to make a real commercial and operational impact.
• Support from an experienced senior leadership team committed to your success and development.
• Investment in your career, with excellent progression opportunities as the business continues to grow.
• The chance to work for a business that's investing in its restaurants, its people, its technology and its future.

Ready to make your mark?

If you are an inspiring multi-site leader with the commercial expertise to drive performance and the passion to develop exceptional teams, we'd love to hear from you.

Join Wildwood and help us build the next exciting chapter of our journey