Business Development Manager

Salary: Competitive, dependent on experience, plus an attractive bonus scheme and car allowance.

Contract: Permanent, 40 hours per week.

Location: Across the company-wide estate.

Reporting line: Chief Executive Officer.

Scope: Eighteen venues across the South East, together with new sites as they are brought into the estate.

The organisation: Chongie Entertainment UK Limited operates eighteen Adult Gaming Centres across the South East of England under the Little Vegas and Little Macau brands, employing approximately 190 people. The Company is licensed by the Gambling Commission and operates within the framework of the Gambling Act 2005 and the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice. The estate continues to expand. New venues are opened as suitable sites and licences are secured, and the operational structure is being built to support that growth. We are an operationally driven business. Our venues trade continuously, our managers make decisions at pace, and we value practical judgement and personal accountability over process for its own sake.

Purpose of the role: The Business Development Manager holds operational and commercial responsibility for the venue estate, reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer. The role exists to drive the trading performance of each venue, to raise and maintain operating standards across the portfolio, and to bring new sites into the business effectively as they open. This is an operational appointment first. The initial focus is on establishing a firm grip on the estate, on how each venue trades, and on the standards and disciplines that underpin performance. Commercial responsibilities are then introduced on a phased basis as the successful candidate establishes themselves, with the intention that the role assumes full commercial accountability for the portfolio over time. The role carries responsibility for the area management structure. The Company is building that structure, and the successful candidate will be central to establishing it, recruiting into it and leading it.

Principal responsibilities:

• Operational leadership: Holding overall responsibility for the operational performance and standards of the venue estate; establishing, recruiting into and leading the area management structure as it is built out; setting and maintaining consistent operating standards across all venues; working closely with venue management on staffing, service, presentation and customer experience; ensuring venues operate in accordance with the Company’s licensing and regulatory obligations.
• Trading and commercial performance: Owning the trading performance of the portfolio, including revenue, cost control and venue profitability; reviewing gaming product and machine mix, and the performance of each venue against its potential; contributing to pricing, promotional activity and customer proposition; managing supplier and machine supply relationships and associated commercial agreements; supporting investment decisions, including refurbishment and capital expenditure across the estate.
• New sites: Mobilising and opening new venues, including recruitment, fit-out readiness and trading launch; contributing to the assessment of prospective sites and their commercial potential; integrating new venues into the operating structure and bringing them to expected performance.

Person specification:

Experience of the gaming sector is not required. The Company is open to candidates from multi-site retail, hospitality, leisure or comparable customer-facing environments who can demonstrate the operational and commercial capability the role demands.

Essential:

• Substantial multi-site operational experience, with accountability for trading performance across a portfolio.
• A track record of leading and developing management teams.
• Commercial capability, including budget ownership, cost control and profit accountability.
• The judgement and personal authority to set standards and hold managers to them.
• A full driving licence and willingness to travel extensively across the estate.

Desirable:

• Experience of opening new sites or of operating within an expanding estate.
• Experience within a licensed, regulated or late-night operating environment.
• A Personal Management Licence issued by the Gambling Commission. This is not a requirement of appointment; the successful candidate may be asked to obtain one in due course, and the Company will meet the cost of doing so.

Working arrangements: Applicants should consider this section carefully before applying. The Company trades on a twenty-four hour basis and this is a senior position with responsibility for the whole estate. The hours required are those the business demands rather than those set out in the contract, and the contracted forty hours should be regarded as a minimum rather than a description of the working week. Evening and weekend working is a regular feature of the role, not an occasional one. The successful candidate will be contactable outside normal office hours and will be expected to attend venues at short notice where the business requires it, including during periods of new site opening and at times of operational difficulty. Travel across the estate is extensive. Working patterns are set according to the needs of the business and the demands of the estate at any given time. The successful candidate will be expected to structure their week around those requirements, in agreement with the Chief Executive Officer. We set this out openly so that applicants can judge for themselves whether the role fits their circumstances. The commitment described above is a genuine requirement of the position and we recognise that it will not suit everyone. Any candidate who wishes to discuss the working arrangements is welcome to raise this at any stage of the process.

Terms and conditions:

• Competitive salary, dependent on experience.
• Car allowance – Attractive bonus scheme, awarded at the Company’s discretion.
• 28 days’ annual leave, inclusive of bank and public holidays.
• 40 hour contract; additional hours are required as the needs of the business dictate.
• Six month probationary period.
• Company pension scheme in accordance with statutory auto-enrolment requirements.

All appointments are subject to satisfactory references, verification of the right to work in the United Kingdom, and completion of the probationary period. Chongie Entertainment UK Limited is an equal opportunities employer.