Training and Operations Manager

Are you a Catering Manager, Chef Manager or Operations Manager with commercial acumen and a passion for training?

We are looking for a Training & Operations Manager to join our healthcare team, working with the senior management team, to ensure the satisfaction of our healthcare customers.

The Training and Operations Manager will work closely with colleagues in the sales team and the wider business- including Marketing and Customer Services. 

You will manage your time across a portfolio of customers: promoting the apetito brand, helping them to maximise value and efficiency from our system, deliver training and supporting with practical issues. 

You will support 100+ customer accounts across London, East Anglia & East Midlands. Subject to change.

This could be in a rural community hospital or a large acute hospital, that feeds thousands of patients every day.

Our customer service and collaborative approach sets us apart from our competition by adding genuine value to our customers. 

apetito is the UK’s leading food supplier to the health and social care sectors serving more than 700 care homes, 600 hospitals, as well as 200 education settings. Our meals are expertly crafted by our dietitians and chefs, and then frozen to lock in the goodness. For over 25 years our sister company Wiltshire Farm Foods has been cooking and delivering over 300 different delicious frozen meals to our customer's homes.

The healthcare team are experts in the field, with a wealth of operational, managerial, and training experience and knowledge both within apetito but also from our previous roles within the healthcare industry, providing us with a thorough and empathetic understanding of our customers and enabling us to fully support their strategy and vision. Our vision is to maintain marker leadership in patient catering, through our unparralleled product, system, service and world class Training & Operations offering.

We provide operational support and training, as well as advice and guidance throughout the life cycle of the contract; ensuring the development of a custom-made proposition for each customer using a mix of products, systems, and services to deliver an outstanding dining experience to all patients.

The Training & Operations team are an integral part of the success of apetito partnerships and a key link between our customers and apetito.

You will be home-based with regular travel across the region and further afield to our head office in Wiltshire and other parts of the country so will involve early starts, late finishes and overnight stays.

A successful Training & Operations Manager will be a self-starter, who can develop long-term partnerships with customers ensuring retention and satisfaction 

The role is extremely varied and is dependent on the customers’ needs, service model and strategic vision, but will include:

Mobilisations
A key element of this role is to successfully project manage the mobilisation of a change in supplier or system for new customers, utilizing tried and proven systems, ensuring a smooth and seamless transition.

Working in conjunction with the Operational team, key tasks include:

• Identifying the customers’ requirements at the start of the process
• Developing a mobilisation plan which provides a solution that is right for the site and then making sure everyone is aware of their role and responsibilities.
• Arrange and chair, regular review meetings during the mobilisation process, identifying, addressing, and resolving any issues and concerns as they arise.
• Identifying training needs and delivering comprehensive training to all staff involved in the service from placing orders and deliveries, to point of service at ward level.
• Working with the operations team and dietitians, to ensure menus are appropriate and meet the needs of the patient.
• Arrange and hold PR tasting and awareness sessions in order to gain buy in from all stakeholders.
• Carry out regen trials to ensure optimum results in terms of food quality and temperature.

Training

The key to the success of any operational service is through sharing best practice standards, identifying the right fit for the operation and then ensuring that the staff are trained to a level where they are confident and competent and know exactly what is required of them, instilling the passion and desire to provide the very best service possible.

Staff training doesn’t stop after the initial mobilisation, it’s an ongoing process and we have a detailed training package available to our customers.

Using a variety of training resources and delivery methods, you will be responsible for the delivery of a variety of comprehensive training sessions and workshops, tailored appropriately to the needs of the staff and the catering operation, in order to continually educate and empower staff with the knowledge and knowhow in order to deliver an excellent dining experience.

Auditing

The success of any system is to continually monitor and audit what is happening, this helps to determine the effectiveness of training, the efficiency of internal controls, ensures compliance to best practice as well as identifying operational and resource inefficiencies and waste.

Utilizing a range of apps and digital tools, you will be required to carry out audits in line with the customers’ requirements. These can range from specific processes within the system such as pick and pack, include an overview of the entire system or purely focus on food waste at ward level.

You must be able to provide actions plans and recommendations, in line with your findings and offer operational support and guidance for the customer alongside refresher training, in order to bring the service back in line.

Customer Relationships and Business Retention
The Healthcare team pride themselves on the long and loyal relationships they have with their customers, and the Training & Operations team are pivotal in retaining our existing business.

You will be expected to instil confidence and trust from the very start; building strong relationships with your customers, you will be the expert in terms of Cook Freeze meals solutions and the apetito product ranges, sharing best practice and creating positive PR within the catering department and wider areas of the hospitals you work with. 

Continual Development of the Training & Operations Package

The role is forever evolving as we make greater use of the latest digital developments to drive continuous improvement and efficiencies within our business. Working with your Training and Ops colleagues you will be key to driving through these developments and bringing our support package into the digital age.

Project work may involve new innovations for the training & ops support package, assisting the Catering Consultants with product launches and tastings, organising regional Consumer Taste Panels and workshops, supporting company events such as the Leadership Forum or external trade conferences.

Your role will also involve sharing ideas with other members of the healthcare team, involvement at our regular team meetings and being prepared to help other team members nationally when the need arises.

Essential:

• Experience of catering management 
• Confident presentation skills - stakeholder presentations are a regular occurrence.
• Confident delivering meaningful and effective training
• Proactive approach to time management and prioritisation to manage a complex workload effectively.
• Project management experience
• Agile communication and presentation skills - able to engage and build trust at all levels of the business, from board room to kitchen.
• Good A Levels / GCSEs to support a high standard of business communication skills and basic numerical analysis.
• Attention to detail with good literacy skills.
• Full UK driving licence

Desirable:

• Experience in a hospital catering environment.
• Commercial experience - reviewing contracts - understanding KPI's & SLA's
• Training Experience to medium sized groups
• Certification in Food Hygiene/nutrition standards
• Knowledge of the healthcare market including cook freeze experience

Personal Qualities:

• Demonstrates a passion for service.
• Enthused by building long-term business.
• Self-motivated and resilient
• Pragmatic operator
• A strong communicator, internally and externally: Articulate, both verbally and in writing
• Good team player: able to work with colleagues to achieve optimum results in both their own role and for the business as a whole.
• Personable; Perceived as a low-pressure operator with integrity.
• Diplomatic, but assertive.
• Be able to command respect at all levels of the business from board room to kitchen

Due to the geography of this role and the nature of working with customers, flexibility with working hours will be needed.  

Travel to customers across the region and to national events, including overnight stays, will be a regular requirement - typically 1 night per week.  

A company car is provided to facilitate this and a clean (or virtually clean) driving licence is essential. 

As this role involves working with elderly and vulnerable customers, it is exempt from The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and requires a Standard DBS Disclosure.

• Competitive salary – accredited Living Wage employer
• Company Car
• 25 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays
• Option to purchase up to 5 additional days holiday per year
• Generous annual bonus scheme
• Pension scheme - employer matched contributions up to 4%
• Life assurance scheme worth at least 2x annual salary
• Free turkey or voucher at Christmas
• apetito perks scheme including salary sacrifice options and retail discounts

As a family-owned business, we take great pride in being a company that makes a real difference and is dedicated to creating outstanding meals to be proud of.

We develop a range of products designed to enhance health and well-being for all our customers.

We are driven by a passion for service and dedicated to feeding some of the UK’s most vulnerable people.

We proudly support British food and farming, focusing on using the best ethical and sustainable produce in alignment with our goal to reach Net Zero by 2040.

Our ethical standards are recognised by the ETI and we are an accredited Living Wage employer.
Learn more about apetito’s commitment to a more sustainable future.

We embrace inclusion, empowering individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Our commitment to making a real difference extends to customers, communities, and staff and we're on a mission to build an inclusive workplace where everyone reaches their full potential.