General Manager in Birmingham

We're looking for an experienced General Manager to take full operational and commercial accountability for our Birmingham unit. This is a high-profile leadership role where you'll manage a team of 81 people (at peak), own a £5M+ P&L, and be the face of gategourmet locally.

If you're a strong operator who thrives on accountability, builds high-performing teams, and knows how to balance operational excellence with commercial delivery, we want to hear from you.

About the Role:

Reporting to the Regional Operations Manager, you'll have complete responsibility for the performance of the Birmingham unit. This means driving operational standards, managing customer relationships, delivering financial targets, and ensuring full compliance with health & safety, security, and regulatory requirements.

You'll lead a multi-functional team across production, logistics, and support functions, developing your management team through coaching and mentoring while fostering a culture of continuous improvement and engagement.

What You'll Be Responsible For:

• Operational Leadership: Full accountability for all aspects of unit operations and performance
• Lead compliance adherence across regulatory, customer, and internal policies
• Identify root causes of issues and implement robust solutions
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives that move the unit forward
• Deliver operational policies and decisions from the Executive Management Team

• Financial Management: Own the unit P&L and deliver budgeted performance year on year
• Create accurate budgets, communicate them effectively, and ensure accountability is aligned
• Justify business cases for capital expenditure and operational improvements
• Demonstrate strong commercial acumen and cost control

• Customer & Stakeholder Management: Build and maintain positive relationships with all unit customers
• Act as the senior point of contact for customer escalations and strategic discussions
• Embrace partnership principles to strengthen customer relationships
• Represent gategourmet professionally in the local business arena

• People Leadership: Monitor, guide, and develop your direct reports to operate as a high-performing team
• Work with HR and Learning & Development to continually improve employee skills
• Coach and mentor your management team to build capability and succession
• Manage recruitment to ensure the right people are in place at the right time
• Lead annual salary reviews, balancing engagement, reward, and cost-effectiveness
• Deliver culture change through visible leadership and consistent engagement

What We're Looking For:

Essential Experience:

• Proven track record managing a busy, dynamic production, manufacturing, or food environment
• Experience managing multi-functional teams with full P&L accountability
• Demonstrated success delivering budgets and financial targets year on year
• Strong track record taking accountability for decisions, projects, and activities
• Evidence of implementing continuous improvement and driving operational change
• Experience managing difficult situations, clients, and stakeholders
• Knowledge of food safety standards and regulatory compliance

Leadership & Skills:

• Strong leadership ability with the skill to lead and motivate diverse teams through challenging circumstances
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build long-term relationships across diverse groups
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills
• Excellent organisational skills and ability to manage workload under pressure
• Ability to delegate effectively and develop others
• Commercial awareness and customer focus
• Effective verbal and written communication skills in English

What You'll Get:

• Real accountability – This is your unit, your P&L, your performance
• Leadership visibility – Direct engagement with senior stakeholders and customers
• Development opportunities – Part of a global organisation with career progression
• Supportive environment – Work with experienced HR, finance, commercial, and operations teams
• Competitive package – Salary reflective of the responsibility, plus benefits

Our Values:

At gategroup, we live by our values of Excellence, Passion, Responsibility, Respect. We treat each other with respect, communicate openly, problem-solve as a team, and take responsibility for our actions. We do what we say we'll do, and we care about making each other's day better.

Ready to take the lead and deliver results? Apply now.