Managing Director

The Company

This established business in the UK has a very clear identity and ethos. It has found its niche competing with bigger corporates on the one hand, and smaller emerging entrepreneurial businesses on the other. The time is right for an established leader to take over at the helm and steer this well-respected and successful business into future expansion. The company is based in the South but has national and international reach. The client base is extensive and varied across all sectors of food service – workplace, commercial, retail, education, etc.

The Role

The business sits in a comfortable space in the industry trading between £100m and £300m turnover. As is customary in Food Service, your number of client accounts will sit in the several hundred, so stakeholder management (through others) is key. You will have a classic structure to work with i.e. Operations Directors reporting to you either by geography or by sector. The role is stand-alone so you will have Finance, HR, Business Development, Culinary all reporting into you. 

The culture is pacey, collaborative, and often pioneering. Third party client management forms a vital part of this role as is the ability to manage change effectively and efficiently whilst influencing a huge number of decision makers to go on the journey with you.

The Candidate

Your credentials should speak for themselves. You will have managed a sizeable business in the UK – preferably nationally – and will be comfortably running a business from top to bottom. You will have experience of a business sized between £150m – £300m and have managed the full structure that accompanies this as described above.

You will thrive in a more entrepreneurial environment, work at pace and be confident in your own decision making without the need to constantly seek counsel. You’ll be an interested foodie, aware of what is going on in the industry and on top of current trends and technology. You need a dynamic, visible leadership style and be skilled in influencing and negotiating.

We are more than happy to see candidates who have worked outside the Food Service industry but all the attributes listed above need to be evident, most notably scale, quality and the ability to manage at a senior level across an incredibly wide canvass of client business.