Managing Director – Growing Restaurant Business
London with travel
£125,000 - £150,000 package

The opportunity:

I'm working with a founder-led restaurant business looking to appoint a Managing Director to lead the next stage of its journey.

This is a business with an incredible product, a loyal following and genuine ambition. They're now looking for someone who can bring together every part of the organisation, build on an already strong culture and help shape what the next five years looks like.

We're looking for someone who has already sat at the top table, led a senior leadership team and taken full responsibility for the performance and direction of a restaurant business.

The role:

• You'll be responsible for the overall strategy and performance of the business, working alongside an experienced leadership team to ensure every function is pulling in the same direction.
• This isn't about managing departments day to day. It's about leading the leaders.
• You'll have had Finance, People, Marketing and Operations reporting directly into you, setting the direction, making the key strategic decisions and creating alignment across the business. You'll know how to balance long-term growth with day-to-day performance, understanding exactly which levers to pull to drive sales, profitability, guest satisfaction and team engagement.
• You'll spend as much time thinking about the future of the business as you will walking the restaurants, talking to teams and making sure the culture, standards and guest experience never slip.

You'll have a proven track record of:

• Leading a senior executive team across Operations, Finance, People and Marketing.
• Setting business strategy and delivering sustainable commercial growth.
• Building high-performing cultures where people stay, develop and succeed.
• Driving sales, profitability and EBITDA without compromising the product or guest experience.
• Creating alignment across every function so the business moves forward together.
• Being equally comfortable in the boardroom, with investors and in the restaurants with your teams.

What we're looking for:

• We're looking for a genuine hospitality leader.
• Someone who still gets excited by brilliant restaurants, exceptional food and unforgettable service.
• Someone who believes culture isn't something you talk about in the boardroom – it's something you build every day through your people, your behaviours and the standards you set and can demonstrate owning this function.
• You'll be visible across the business, approachable, hands-on and naturally curious.
• You'll ask questions, challenge where needed and support your teams to be the very best they can be.
• You'll understand that your role isn't to have all the answers, but to build an exceptional leadership team that does.
• They're looking for someone who is obsessed with the details that guests remember, passionate about developing great people and experienced enough to know that the best-performing restaurant businesses are built on strong culture, brilliant product and exceptional leadership.

Get in touch – kate@corecruitment.com