Commercial Site Manager - Crawley

Location: Tilgate Park, Titmus Drive, Crawley, RH10 5PQ, United Kingdom

Employee Type: Full Time

Manage Others: Yes

Calling all great Managers and Business leaders! We are recruiting for a Commercial Site Manager at our Crawley site! Located in the stunning Arboretum at Tilgate Park, Go Ape Crawley is looking for a high-energy individual to help lead our tribe. As part of the UK’s #1 High Ropes Forest Adventure Company, our site is home to our Treetop Challenge and Treetop Adventure courses set against the breathtaking natural backdrop of the park. We are an employee-owned business driven by the belief that adventure is for everyone, and we truly "live life adventurously." If you have a "customer WOW" attitude, a love for the outdoors, and want to help our guests find their happy place in the canopy, you’ll fit right in.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Oversee a safe site, safe people (customers and staff), a safe course (infrastructure) and safe equipment.
• Employ, train and build a happy, engaged and professional team who can deliver amazing customer experience.
• Own your site, driving it forward commercially by finding ways to increase revenues and deliver efficiencies with a strong focus on the highest cost lines.

Commercial Management & Marketing:

• Increase revenue by attracting more customers and providing the availability required, upselling, increasing secondary spend and developing your site products.
• Oversee efficient staffing and good returns on site expenditure.
• Make Go Ape famous locally.
• Build a good understanding of the commercial nature of your site.
• Monitor and own the revenue and participant numbers for your site, seeking to undertake corrective action as required.
• Write and maintain the local marketing plan for your site.
• Ensure the completion of the Instructor Local Marketing tasks (LMI) in order to grow brand awareness locally and drive customer bookings.
• Maintain good relationships and have regular meetings with the site’s stakeholders, landowners, marketing partners, local media, and any other relevant prospective customer groups in the catchment area.
• Be an active member of the local tourism bodies in order to build Go Ape’s profile.
• Build awareness and knowledge of local competitors monitoring products, pricing, advertising etc.
• Help to identify opportunities to further grow the site business.

Health and Safety:

• Operate the site in accordance with Company Procedures.
• Ensure a safe workplace environment without risk to health.
• Ensure that all Health & Safety policies, procedures, rules and regulations are adhered to and communicated.
• Deliver training at the beginning of the year, ensuring all new staff are fully aware of company policies and procedures.
• Keep risk assessments up to date.
• Maintain PPE and safety equipment in good order including records.
• Ensure all participants complete a Risk Acknowledgement prior to participation.
• Ensure safety briefs, assessments, rescues and practices are carried out in line with Company Procedures.

Business Development:

• Work with key support staff to develop opportunities at site.
• Build and maintain good relationships with key parties.
• Attend regular manager meetings in the UK.
• Visit other Go Ape sites when requested.

Team Management:

• Create staff rotas, keeping and submitting records of hours worked, holidays and absence.
• Recruit great staff with the support of the People team.
• Conduct induction meetings to welcome new staff.
• Conduct annual and regular performance appraisals and create performance improvement and training and development plans as required.
• Manage performance, and where necessary disciplining staff in accordance with company procedures.

Corporate Events:

• Work closely with the Events Team to ensure all events go smoothly.
• Liaise with caterers and external suppliers prior to all bookings.
• Arrange for the delivery of the product by the site team.
• Provide feedback on the event to improve the process/product for the future.

General Site Operation:

• Meet sales and cost targets as agreed by the Directors.
• Keep receipts of all expenses and mileage as per Company Procedures.
• Ensure the office/cabin is run efficiently with all files kept tidy and up to date.
• Respond promptly to all correspondence.
• Banking as per company procedures.
• Report to the Directors as required.
• Proactively seek advice, ideas, support and input from the support teams.

Person Specification:

• Live within 40 minutes commute of site.
• Previous management experience and must be able to show the ability to lead, manage and motivate your team.
• Business acumen, attention to commercial detail, statistically numerate.
• An interest in, and appreciation of the impact that Marketing has on reaching targets.
• Must be rescue trained (training to be given on the job).
• Excellent organisation and administrative skills.
• Customer service background and excellent customer service skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Must be a team player and able to work with other colleagues and teams.
• Must like working outdoors and be confident working at height.
• First Aid At Work (to be obtained prior to start date).
• Experience organising and delivering Training.
• High energy levels with a positive approach and outlook.
• Ability to work under pressure and to deadlines.
• Confidence to ask for assistance and support when required.
• Full driving license and own transport.
• Carpentry / practical DIY & Maintenance skills.
• Marketing experience.
• Commercial business administration experience.
• Ability to delegate correctly.
• Demonstrable ability to maintain standards in other people’s work.

Training:

All Commercial Site Managers are required to attend the Managers’ Training Week each year.

This pre-season training will:

• Bring you up to date with the latest business development and news.
• Bring you up to date with Health & Safety and Company Procedures.
• Enable you to network with colleagues across the whole company.
• Enable the sharing of good practice.
• Update you on any changes within the Operations Manual, IT, Marketing, People and Finance.

Contract:

• Contract Type: Permanent.
• Reports To: Regional Manager.
• Salary: Salary is dependent on skills and experience.
• Accommodation is not provided.
• Holiday Entitlement: 25 days holiday plus Xmas and 8 Bank holidays.
• Working Hours: Average of 37.5 hours/week. Flexible to meet operational needs. Weekend working will be required. Bank holiday work awarded time off in lieu.

Company Ethos:

Our Values:

• Keeping the adventure in adventure.
• Always seeking to be two steps better.
• To challenge, surprise and excite.
• Be socially and environmentally responsible.
• Create worthwhile, rewarding jobs.
• Do the right thing.

Our Mission:

To be the best adventure company on the planet (where you can be home in time for tea).

Our Vision:

“Creating adventures; encouraging everyone to live life adventurously”.

If you feel as strongly as we do about encouraging everyone to live life more adventurously then this could be the perfect environment for you to work in.

At Go Ape we are committed to our 'Working together to Safeguard Children' obligation for safeguarding and in this role you will be working in a position of trust. Diversity, equity and inclusion matters at Go Ape. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our co-owners to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We are pleased to hold a score of 4.88 out of 5 in response to the following question ‘On a scale of 1 – 5, how accurate would you say the following statement is ‘I feel welcome at Go Ape’ (5 being very accurate)’. As the above illustrates, we are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider reasonable adjustments for all our roles.

Please note that all offers are subject to acceptable Right to Work documents being provided.