Bar Manager jobs in Bollington

General Manager - Freight Island, Manchester

Location: Manchester

Salary: £50,000 - £55,000 (DOE) plus annual bonus (discretionary)

Contract Type: Full-Time, Permanent (45 hours/week)

Hours: By rota, 5 out of 7 as business requires

Reports to: Senior General Manager

Start Date: August/September 2026 desirable

Freight Island crafts, curates and operates distinct mutli-use venues built around atmosphere, community and immersive guest experiences. Across our spaces we bring together world class food vendors, unique and craft beverage concepts, live performances and a curated events programme to redefine how people gather, eat, drink and socialise. Transforming from daytime community hubs to electrifying night time experiences and flexing seamlessly from corporate private hires to unforgettable, headliner DJ’s, Freight offers a space for everyone, no matter the occasion. Joining Freight Island means stepping into an extremely fast paced, creative environment where high operational standards drive unforgettable guest experiences at scale.

The original Freight Island and the beating heart of our operations, Manchester sets the standard for large scale, multi-faceted hospitality. Legendary for iconic fanzone atmospheres, hosting heavyweight touring artists and DJ’s, transportive themed events and vibrant family events, Manchester combines massive cultural moments with high caliber food and drink. We effortlessly bridge raw market style with elevated dining concepts, providing the ultimate blueprint for possibility.

Reporting into the Senior General Manager, the General Manager will be responsible for the daily operations, financial reporting and strategic decision making. Ensuring strategic goals are met by setting operational policies, maintaining budgets and managing employees. You should have strong commercial thinking and exceptional planning, organisation, and collaboration skills. Ultimately you are responsible for ensuring the business is effective in achieving their goals.

You will need considerable experience with venue management and bar operations, ideally within a festival, or multi-purpose venue space. You’ll be someone who genuinely cares about their working environment and has strong commercial thinking, has a solid understanding of licensing objectives and procedures, is detail orientated and has a passion for our industry. You will bring a positive, can-do attitude to work every day and lead your team from the front. We are particularly interested in General Managers with a passion for development, and who have experience recruiting and developing a team to achieve excellence.

Key Responsibilities:

• Communication is key. The General Manager should not only be an excellent and effective communicator, but must be able to drive effective communications between departments, with key stakeholders and use that communication to influence and drive the business
• Developing and implementing strategies that will ensure a positive experience that exceeds guest expectations
• Managing a team of operational and non operational managers
• Work collaboratively with all department managers to make sure operations are running smoothly and in sync with one another, in the most appropriate and cost-effective way
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of legal obligations and compliance relating to the business
• Establish and maintain standards of staff performance and customer service
• Maintain full knowledge of all inner workings of the venue, including vendors and offerings
• Knowledge of organisational effectiveness, efficiency, and ops management
• Flexible and agile approach to work, able to respond to rapid changes
• Confident working in collaboration with stakeholders and senior leadership teams, and excellent at building relationships

The Specifics:

Business Requirements & Financial Reporting

• Execute budgets, forecasting and cost controls
• Responsible for onsite spending, including stock and staffing
• Forming accurate projections for financial performance
• Supporting the CEO and Senior General Manager in implementing the company’s strategy and vision
• Work with the Back of House Manager to maintain data of product levels, sales trends and peak operating times to adjust rotas and stock holding levels as required
• Hold weekly team meetings / debriefs to identify areas of improvement
• To control the financial performance of the business, seeking to exceed agreed targets and achieving agreed margins
• To develop the business by continually seeking opportunities to improve service and increase sales, anticipating changes and planning accordingly
• Maximise operational profitability by seeking opportunities to increase sales, managing inventory effectively, and controlling materials / wage costs
• An understanding of programming and artist booking

Venue Management

• Maintain full knowledge of all inner workings of the venue, including vendors and offerings
• Lead from the front. We want our General Manager to be hands-on during busy periods, driving excellence through visibility, helping to solve challenging situations, and providing experienced leadership and direction to all departments and contractors working on site
• Joining the dots between departments to ensure all functions of the business work together
• Perform quality controls and monitor team KPIs
• Co-ordinate Food Traders, holding them accountable for all H&S, food safety and compliance requirements
• Working closely with the Marketing team to ensure all event communications are filtered through all operational departments in good time
• Maintaining strong relationships with security, staffing suppliers and other key stakeholders
• Communicating changes in processes to all relevant parties
• Ensuring all Company policies, standards, initiatives and requirements relating to the operation are upheld, including licensing objectives, food & hygiene, H&S
• Reporting any concerns regarding unsafe work practices for employees and advising RIDDOR accidents and EHO visits to the Senior General Manager

Our Team - People & Staffing

• Provide direction on appropriate venue staffing
• Ensure the operational team conduct shift briefings to keep everyone informed of developments and changes daily
• Communicating changes in processes to all relevant teams
• Reviewing workloads and people power to ensure targets are met
• Ensure the rota is to budget, staffing levels support efficient operations, and any new recruits are in the right roles for optimal performance
• Promote from within where possible and be a proud ambassador of our Company culture, creating a warm, inclusive and welcoming working environment
• A natural leader, you will confidently lead from the front, supporting and uplifting staff members who may be new or in training
• Ensure the success of your operational teams through leading positively by example. Set targets with clear standards and timescales
• Motivate by inspiring extraordinary efforts - encourage and coach your team to successfully achieve. Recognise and share in your team’s success!
• Manage staffing procedures, HR processes and team performance with support from the People & Talent Team
• Own the site level training and development arcs of your team. Identify team members primed for promotion and work with the People & Talent team to monitor and execute site level training
• Delivering training where a skills gap is identified to upskill our in-house team
• Maintaining safe working conditions for all employees and a healthy, enjoyable working environment

You must have:

• 5 years of Venue Management in a food & beverage environment
• 3 years of Bar Operations experience
• Experience in managing full site budgets
• Personal Licence
• Ability to work under your own initiative
• Confidence & competence with Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, particularly Excel & Google Sheets
• Confidence and willingness to make decisions and able to present the rationale driving them as the senior decision maker on site
• Ability to identify, prioritise and resolve problems
• Natural leadership skills
• Confident working in collaboration with stakeholders and senior team, and excellent at building relationships
• Knowledge of organisational effectiveness, efficiency, and ops management

Interview Process:

1 Stage - Video call with our People & Talent Team

2 Stage - In person interview with our Senior General Manager

3 Stage - Interview with our CEO

Pay: £50,000.00-£55,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Casual dress
• Company events
• Discounted or free food
• Sick pay

Work Location: In person