General Manager

Holroyd Howe; Lightwater; On-site; GBP 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading contract caterer seeks a General Manager to oversee catering services at a prestigious independent school. This role demands exceptional leadership and commitment to high-quality service in an educational environment. The position offers a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits, and opportunities for career progression within a values-led organization.

Benefits

28 days holiday including bank holidays

Enhanced family-friendly policies

Comprehensive training and development support

Company pension and life assurance

Free meals while on duty

Clear progression opportunities

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a General Manager in a high-volume catering environment.
• Strong analytical skills to drive commercial performance.
• Excellent coaching and influencing skills.

Responsibilities

• Manage the catering services for a prestigious educational institution.
• Oversee food safety and quality standards (HACCP).
• Lead and develop a dedicated catering team.

Skills

Team Management

Financial Management

Food Safety Standards

Customer Service Excellence

Strategic Planning

Job description

Company Description

General Manager (Catering) – Prestigious Independent School

Location: West Surrey

Salary: £55,000 per annum + amazing benefits!

Benefits:

• Competitive salary of £55,000
• 52-week contract with minimal out-of-term operations
• Additional hours worked in term time compensated with lieu time out of term
• 28 days holiday including bank holidays
• Volunteering and grandparent leave available
• Enhanced family-friendly policies
• Comprehensive training and development support
• Company pension and life assurance
• Access to Perkbox discount platform
• Mental health and wellbeing support
• Free meals while on duty
• Clear progression opportunities through structured pathways
  
  

About the Role:

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a General Manager to lead the catering services at one of the area's most respected independent day schools.

This position oversees the delivery of food and hospitality services across the site, including a busy dining operation, staff hospitality, and events. The successful candidate will lead a dedicated catering team, ensuring exceptional quality, innovation, and service.

Responsibilities include operational leadership, financial and compliance oversight, team development, and delivering outstanding client satisfaction within a premium educational environment.

What We’re Looking For:

We're seeking an experienced and people-focused operator with a background in managing high-quality catering in education or similar sectors. A passion for food, service excellence, and team culture is essential.

If you're ready to make a meaningful impact in a values-led setting, while enjoying a strong work-life balance and long-term growth opportunities, we’d love to hear from you.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage a large team to ensure efficient and high-quality catering services
• Act as the line manager to Prep School Chef Manager as well.
• Ensure smooth operations, meeting the needs of both students and staff
• Maintain operational excellence in a challenging logistics environment, focusing on efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
• Implement and uphold food safety and quality standards (HACCP) across all catering operations.
• Oversee the hospitality and lettings segments, ensuring a seamless experience for external events and high-profile functions.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives, adapting operations to meet changing demands and enhance service delivery.
  
  

Qualifications

Requirements:

• Proven experience as a General Manager in a high-volume, quality-focused environment.
• You can demonstrate that managing, training, and supporting a team has been an important part of your career to date.
• Financially astute, you are very analytical and know how to create and maintain budgets and drive commercial performance.
• Excellent coaching, delegation and influencing skills.
• Ability to prioritise multiple projects in a fast-paced, multi-faceted, creative environment and able to thrive under pressure.
• Ability to multitask, prioritise responsibilities, and adapt to changing circumstances in a fast-paced environment.
• Meticulous organisational abilities and a high attention to detail
• Empathetic, clear and highly effective verbal and written communication
• Ability to adapt to challenges and opportunities with a solution-oriented perspective.
• Excellent strategic thinking and critical reasoning skills
  
  

Additional Information

Holroyd Howe is one of the UK’s leading contract caterers, providing fresh innovative food services solely to independent schools and colleges. We are a team of experienced professionals who tailor our catering service provision specifically to suit children of all ages in order to meet the bespoke requirements of each school.

To provide our teams with the right skills to succeed in their jobs, we invest in their training and development. Our exceptional teams of seasoned specialists customise our catering services to fit children of all ages and satisfy the unique needs of our clients.

We pride ourselves on:

Sustainability

Sustainability is at the heart of our thinking; always mindful of the ethics of our sourcing and how we prepare our meals.

Nutrition

We take nutrition seriously and understand the impact a healthy diet has on the fundamental years of development. Meals are always freshly prepared from scratch and packed with nutritious ingredients.

Food Innovation

We offer a wide portfolio of training opportunities and experiences, which attracts chefs who are passionate about culinary excellence and menu innovation to our team.

From tasting tables, theme days and food theatre, to chef demonstrations and supplier showcases, we create engaging and fun dining experiences for our students. We work together to make mealtimes exploratory, quirky, and fun for our pupils, helping them build strong and healthy relationships with food.

“Holroyd Howe is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expect all employees to share this commitment. All roles within Holroyd Howe are regarded as regulated activity, it is an offence to apply for a role in regulated activity if you are barred from working with children, therefore we will require an Enhanced DBS which includes a Barred List check for all successful applicants. We will also require shortlisted applicants to provide appropriate information regarding any criminal offences and shortlisted applicants will be subject to an online search of public available information on suitability to work with children.“

This appointment is offered on the return of satisfactory professional references.

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