Kitchen Manager

Dobbies Garden Centres Ltd; Carlisle; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 36,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous annual leave

Uncapped store discount

Access to Stream

Retail Trust

Dobbies Academy

Thriving culture

Job summary

Dobbies Garden Centres Ltd is seeking a Kitchen Manager to lead our kitchen team across our restaurants, delivering exceptional customer experiences and high standards of food hygiene. You will manage service levels, ensure on-time meals, and maintain regulatory compliance while driving commercial targets.

You will coach and develop staff, adapt to seasonal priorities, and create a positive, productive environment that supports team growth and memorable dining experiences for our customers.

Qualifications

• Experience in food service alongside management experience.
• Commercial awareness and understanding of budgets and profitability.
• Adaptability to identify training needs; coaching and training all levels.
• Ability to respond quickly to changing priorities, workload, or new regulations.

Responsibilities

• Lead the kitchen team to deliver high levels of service within budget and compliant.
• Ensure meals are presented to a high standard and served on time.
• Maintain a fully compliant kitchen with health & safety and food hygiene standards.
• Inspire the team to deliver excellent food service and customer experience.
• Foster a fun, productive environment and develop team members’ progression within Dobbies.

Skills

Food service

Management experience

Budget understanding

Coaching

Change management

Customer experience

Job description

Our Kitchen Managers play an essential role in delivering an exceptional customer experience across our restaurants - delivering tasty food, ensuring food hygiene, maintaining high operational standards and smashing commercial targets.

Responsibilities

• Leading the kitchen team, ensuring strong levels of service that are efficient, withing budget and compliant
• Ensuring that our customers are presented with their meals to a high standard and on time
• Maintaining a fully compliant kitchen with all statutory requirements of health & safety and food hygiene
• Sparking your team's passion for delivering the best food service and customer experience
• Creating a fun and productive environment for everyone to enjoy the day-to-day operations whilst thinking ahead to ensure all your team have a development journey with Dobbies

Who We Are Looking For

• Experience in food service, alongside management experience
• Commercial awareness and understanding of budgets, profitability from driving sales and improved ways of working
• Adaptability to identify training needs. You'll be effectively coaching and training all levels ensuring our teams are delivering an excellent customer experience and safe store environment
• You'll act quickly and enthusiastically to changing priorities, workload and new regulations or requirements
• Positivity managing change. You'll lead the team through each season with care and motivation to deliver the best
• Can demonstrate our values at all times - we're on team, getting better everyday. We bring a smile. We live and breathe gardens. We make it work for our customers.

What We Offer

• Generous annual leave entitlement. Use your holidays when you want with limited statutory days off required
• Treat yourself with generous uncapped discount across our stores with 50% off in our Restaurants, 25% off in the Garden Centre and 10% off in our food halls
• Access to Stream - support your financial wellbeing, with ability to access earnings ahead of pay day, save for the future and financial advice
• Access to Retail Trust - seek confidential support, access to a virtual GP, free counselling service and discounted retail rewards with our employee wellbeing platform
• Access to Dobbies Academy - continue your development with our eLearning platform and development programmes
• Thriving culture; the Dobbies team are passionate, diverse and committed to making it work for our customers

About Us

At Dobbies, we're proud to have a history dating back to 1865. We were founded by James Dobbie and are the only garden centre retailer to have stores in every nation across the UK.

Our passion and joy for gardens and plants is what makes us special. In our stores, we showcase this through own brand and branded products, concession partners and services. We champion garden living all-year-round.

Many of our stores feature a restaurant or coffee shop, where customers can enjoy refreshments or meals in a relaxed and welcoming environment.

We offer a calendar of events and experiences that bring people and communities together, and we have a national charity partner that both our colleagues and customers raise money for.

We're committed to being a great place to work. We're one team and we encourage our colleagues to be the best version of themselves, every day; to share their wins and celebrate success. Together, we make it work for our customers.