Food & Beverage Manager in Epsom

Horton Lane, Epsom, KT19 8PT, UNITED KINGDOM

We’re looking for a brilliant Food & Beverage Manager to take charge of all things food at Hobbledown.

This is not silver service. It’s not room service. And there definitely aren’t any quiet Tuesday afternoons spent polishing wine glasses.

If the words school holidays, 1,000 lunches, three coach parties and a sudden downpour make you think “right, let’s get organised” rather than “help” — keep reading.

This is visitor attraction F&B: fast, fun, high-volume and gloriously unpredictable.

One minute you’re making sure the cafés are ready for the lunchtime rush. The next you’re moving people around because the heavens have opened and every family in the park suddenly wants food at exactly the same time.

You’ll oversee our cafés, kiosks, grab-and-go points, seasonal outlets, parties and event catering — making sure the food is great, the queues keep moving, the standards stay high and the numbers stack up.

You’ll be leading a large, diverse team, including plenty of young people taking their first steps into the world of work.

That means we need someone who genuinely enjoys managing, coaching and developing people.

You’ll know how to turn a group of teenagers, students, seasonal team members and experienced supervisors into a confident, organised and enthusiastic operation.

You’ll be visible. You’ll be on the floor. You’ll know when someone needs encouragement, when a supervisor needs backing and when the team simply needs a clear plan before the gates open.

If your management style involves disappearing into an office and sending emails about service standards, this probably isn’t the one.

We’re particularly interested in people who have worked in environments such as:

Theme parks and visitor attractions

Zoos, farms and family attractions

Indoor play and activity centres

Holiday parks and resorts

Stadiums, arenas and entertainment venues

Why?

Because you already understand that volume comes in waves.

You know a rainy day can completely change the operation.

You know school holidays require a different staffing model.

You know a sunny Saturday can go from calm to chaos in twenty minutes.

And you know the answer isn’t simply “put more people on shift”.

It’s about planning the right team, in the right places, with the right stock, menu and service flow.

What you’ll actually be doing

You’ll take ownership of the entire Hobbledown F&B operation.

That means getting stuck into everything from rotas and recruitment to menu development, margins and mystery stock disappearing from the freezer.

You’ll:

Lead, coach and develop our F&B team, with a particular focus on supporting young and seasonal team members

Build a strong supervisor and management structure that can confidently run busy services

Plan staffing around weekends, holidays, events, weather and visitor forecasts

Make sure cafés, kiosks and seasonal outlets are ready before the rush arrives

Keep queues moving without compromising food quality or guest experience

Manage ordering, stockholding, waste and availability

Keep a close eye on labour, food cost, margins and overall F&B performance

Spot opportunities to grow spend per head through better menus, promotions and upselling

Develop food that works for families — from children’s meals to grab-and-go options and treats worth getting excited about

Make allergen management, food safety and HACCP completely non-negotiable

Work with suppliers on quality, pricing and product development

Support birthday parties, private events and seasonal activity with catering that actually works operationally

Continuously improve how our outlets look, feel and operate

Be present during the busiest periods and lead from the front when things get lively

Who we’re looking for

You’re an experienced F&B operator who understands that running food in a leisure attraction is a very different beast from running a restaurant or hotel department.

You’re commercially sharp, operationally strong and comfortable managing significant volume.

But just as importantly, you’re good with people.

You can coach a nervous 16-year-old on their first shift, challenge an experienced supervisor when standards slip and keep a team smiling when there are 40 tickets on the screen.

You’ll probably have:

Experience leading F&B within a visitor attraction, leisure, entertainment, holiday park or similarly high-volume environment

Strong experience managing young, seasonal and part-time teams

A track record of building confident supervisors and developing future managers

Excellent knowledge of food hygiene, HACCP, allergens and health & safety

Strong commercial understanding of labour, food cost, stock, margins and sales

Experience with menu development, pricing and supplier relationships

Confidence building rotas and staffing plans around forecast demand

Experience managing multiple outlets rather than one standalone restaurant

A good understanding of POS systems, Excel and operational reporting

The ability to stay calm when the park is packed, the queue is growing and somebody has just announced that till three has stopped working

Most importantly, you’ll have energy.

Hobbledown is noisy, colourful, busy and full of families having a day out. We want someone who enjoys that environment and wants to make the F&B operation a genuine part of the experience.

About Escapade Group

Escapade Group operates some of the UK’s most exciting family leisure attractions, including Hobbledown, Kidspace, Gripped, Farmer Ted’s and Watermouth Castle & Family Theme Park.

Across the group, we welcome more than one million guests every year, which means plenty of hungry people, plenty of birthday cake and absolutely no shortage of opportunities to make our food and beverage operations bigger and better.

Screening Questions

• Have you managed Food & Beverage operations within a visitor attraction, theme park, leisure venue, holiday park, zoo, indoor play centre or other high-volume leisure environment?
• Have you directly managed and developed teams made up of young, seasonal and/or part-time employees?
• Please briefly describe a time you managed a major peak in customer demand. How did you plan staffing, stock and service flow to keep queues moving and standards high?
• Describe your customer service experience