Food & Beverage Development Consultant

Food & Beverage Development Consultant

Location: Northbourne, Kent

Contract: Independent Contractor / Project - circa 12 months

Hours: Full-time or substantial part-time, depending on experience and availability

Recruitment: PSM Recruitment, on behalf of Acacia Outdoors

The Opportunity

PSM Recruitment is working with Acacia Outdoors to appoint an experienced Food & Beverage Development Consultant to help develop and launch an exciting new outdoor hospitality concept in the English countryside.

Acacia Outdoors is creating a new cabin destination brand designed to give people an easy way to get outside, slow down and try new things.

The first site, at Northbourne in Kent, is currently in development and will feature 96 cabins, a welcome building, events space and general store. The business is led by experienced outdoor hospitality professionals and backed by institutional investment.

As part of this development, Acacia is looking for someone to take ownership of the F&B operation from concept through to launch readiness.

The F&B Operation

The operation will include a café, general store and wider onsite food & beverage provision, offering guests quality coffee, pastries, prepared food, drinks, groceries and everyday essentials.

This is not a traditional restaurant or pub operation. There will be no formal table service or conventional dining operation.

The successful consultant will create a distinctive, practical and commercially viable F&B proposition that fits the wider guest experience and can ultimately be operated confidently by the onsite team.

The Role

Working closely with Acacia Outdoors, the wider project team and design consultants, you will lead the development of the F&B operation from concept through to launch.

Alongside the F&B remit, there will also be an opportunity to contribute to the wider guest programme. This will include helping shape additional on-site activities such as archery, pottery, scent-making workshops and campfire cooking, working with the third-party partners who will deliver them. This is secondary to the F&B remit, but would suit someone interested in helping design and shape additional elements of this new offering.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop the overall F&B concept and proposition
• Lead menu development, working with specialists such as a consulting chef should that be required
• Develop the general store product range
• Produce recipes, specifications, portion controls and costings
• Establish pricing and gross margin targets
• Identify and source suitable suppliers and establish procurement processes
• Advise on kitchen equipment, operational requirements and layout
• Develop SOPs, opening/closing procedures and operational systems
• Create training materials and operational guides
• Identify staffing requirements and operational workflows
• Support pre-opening and launch preparation
• Identify potential operational issues and develop practical solutions
• Work alongside other specialists, including a consulting chef and other relevant external partners where required
• Contribute, where appropriate, to the development of the wider guest programme and activities, working with third-party operators and specialists
• Deliver a complete operational handover to the onsite team

About You

You will ideally have experience taking a food operation from concept through to opening and handover.

We are particularly interested in someone who:

• Has successfully opened cafés, restaurants, small food operations or similar hospitality concepts
• Understands menus, recipes, food costing and margins, and is confident leading the menu development process
• Has strong supplier and procurement knowledge
• Can develop practical SOPs and training materials
• Understands kitchen equipment and operational layouts
• Is commercially minded and highly organised
• Enjoys building something from scratch
• Is comfortable working both strategically and hands-on
• Can create simple systems that a future team can operate confidently
• Is comfortable bringing in and managing external specialists where appropriate
• Has an interest in the wider guest experience and enjoys working across different elements of a new hospitality concept

Experience in café, lifestyle, outdoor, destination or small-format hospitality would be particularly relevant.

The Project

This is expected to be a circa 12-month independent contractor project, with the potential for full-time or substantial part-time commitment depending on experience and availability.

The aim is to leave Acacia Outdoors with a fully developed, documented and commercially viable F&B operation, ready for the onsite team to run.

This is an opportunity to build an F&B operation from the ground up and play a key role in shaping the guest experience of a new outdoor hospitality brand, with the opportunity to contribute to the wider programme of activities and experiences being developed alongside it.

Salary: DOE starting from £48,000 pa pro rata.