ABOUT GAIL’S
We believe in making good bread. We may have grown (we have 132 bakeries in UK today with 35 openings planned this year) but our philosophy has not changed: we make good food that people love, and create bakeries that people want to keep coming back to.
We bake by hand with natural and sustainable ingredients, we insist on the finest ingredients, and though we’re always innovating, our baking is based on time-honoured techniques and our decades-old starters. Nothing gives us as much pleasure as a freshly baked, lovingly crafted loaf.
As the business prepares to further scale, we feel it is time to take stock and define what we stand for now and in the future, harness all the kudos accumulated so far to build a truly modern, world-changing brand.
We believe the product is king and everything we do must tell a story that inspires, us to turn our neighbourhood bakery business into one of the most customer-centric and future-facing businesses in our industry, leading the way for food transformation.
JOB PURPOSE
The Head of Operations will lead their regional Operations Team in taking complete accountability for building strong succession, ensuring that effective operational planning and financial control systems are in place. This is a hands-on role, and you will be driven by high-quality service and standards. As part of the senior management team, you will play a key part in leading, managing, and delivering the business strategy, taking ownership of any business project. It is key that the individual in this role has a strong track record of new openings, new concepts, developing teams, and maintaining the existing business.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Leading with Drive
* With your knowledge across the entire GAIL’s functions, you will work collaboratively with Heads of Departments to evolve our business strategy and develop your own plans to drive the best results across your region.
* You will actively challenge your team and others where actions and plans may divert us away from our overall strategy and goals.
* You will passionately lead and imbed the GAIL’s culture of care about our communities and teams to prioritise customers to deliver SHINE in the centre of our bakeries
* You will be a guiding hand for your team, making decisions in what can be a complex external market insights setting the direction for the continuous growth of GAIL’s.
Leading to Deliver
* You will anticipate market trends that will support your planning of commercial activities 24 months ahead, delivering consistently high standards, knowing that sales and profit are at the heart of everything.
* You will regularly use KPI data to measure your own performance and that of your teams to set the departmental strategy.
* Full accountability for your area’s P&L, you will proactively review and measure to plan and positively influence results.
* Preparation of budgets, schedules, and other organizational reports as needed, working with other departments when required.
* Working with Finance to analyse figures and in turn working with the Operations team to design and implement a strategy to improve sales & efficiency
* Ensuring that the business continues to develop and grow, project managing, new openings or new concepts from an Operational point of view, whilst collaborating with other department heads as required.
Leading Through People
* Lead a diverse team across your sites, driving a culture of learning and development to support our growth plans.
* You will lead and develop the operations team, succession planning to support 24 months ahead including strategies to improve turnover and retention
* You will work closely with both your people and talent partners to co-create a regional people strategy that Attracts, Develops, Engages and Retains top talent aligned with the organisation strategy
* You'll spend time across all areas in supporting teams, making sure they're the best they can be, and working together to deliver results to be proud of.
* Develop a process to harvest insights from your teams in identifying opportunities to continually improve operational excellence, knowledge of the past, and how to evolve for the future.
* Be an inspiring leader that demonstrates drive, energy, and commitment whilst sharing the bigger picture to inspire and empower your team
* Advocate Personal Development Reviews to support team & competencies development
* You will value and strengthen our organisational culture and be able to engage and relate to our people across all levels, functions, and geography.
Leading with Vision
* Through your passion, experience, and leadership, you'll inspire your Senior and Operations managers to grow and develop, drive SHINE and smash targets each and every day.
* You will foster collaborative relationships, leading innovations and creativity initiatives that can meet our growth plans.
* You will listen to our teams to hear what they need and want, working with our people team to ensure our internal experience is as strong as our customer experience
* You will be the leader of change for your region, working closely with support teams to set direction for new initiatives, and leading impactful regional meetings that invite cross department collaboration.
* You will passionately lead and imbed culture of care about our communities and prioritise customer with SHINE in the centre of our bakeries operations.
* You will be a guiding hand for your team, capturing complex external market insights and setting goals for continuous growth of GAIL’s.
Who are we looking for
* A Head of Operations who is deeply curious with a natural want to explore new ways of working. You have an avid growth mindset, constantly looking for ways to improve and creatively solve problems – passionate about making a significant change in the way we manage our daily interactions with all teams to master execution.
* You will be a natural mentor and share your expertise whilst using your coaching skills to build capability across our people.
* You are a pragmatic, ambitious commercial, highly analytical, and clear communicator, comfortable with ambiguity with strong project management. You have sound objective judgment and are fully in tune with internal and external issues impacting the business.
* You will connect to our values and mission, with sustainability in mind will participate in GAIL’s growth and making the brand stand out through the way we craft and build our relationships with our partners.
* You have a proven track record of strong results across People, Sales Growth and Profit, in a large and growing business.
* You will connect to our values and mission, with sustainability in mind will participate in GAIL’s growth and making the brand stand out through the way we craft and build our relationships with our partners.
* You have a proven track record of strong results across People, Sales Growth and Profit, in a large and growing business.