Staycity Group
Group Director of Bars & Cafes
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Position: Group Director of Bars & Cafes
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
Location: Dublin or London
About the Role
Staycity Group is looking for an exceptional operator to lead and transform our ground-floor experience across Staycity and Wilde.
We want our ground floors to be some of the best spaces in our properties. Amazing bars that come alive in the evening. Great café operations that work brilliantly for breakfast, grab-and-go or sitting in. Welcoming co-working and lobby spaces where guests and locals can meet, work, have a coffee or stay for a drink. This role will lead that ambition across the Group.
Our opportunity is to create exceptional, commercially successful ground floors built around brilliant bars, cafés, co-working, retail and flexible social spaces. We have a clear commercial ambition for our ground floors to contribute 10% of property revenues, and this role will be accountable for building the proposition and operational performance to get us there.
We are looking first and foremost for a brilliant operator. Someone who knows what makes a great bar work, understands how to create energy and atmosphere in a space, and has the commercial instinct to turn great Bar & Cafe experiences into strong-performing businesses.
You will lead the Group Bar & Café function, bringing together Concept & Feasibility, Procurement, Systems & Pricing and Marketing, while overseeing partnerships and third-party operators.
What You'll Be Responsible For
- Set and lead the Group Bar & Café strategy across Staycity and Wilde, translating our ground-floor ambition into brilliant operations across the portfolio.
- Own the Group Bar & Café P&L, driving revenue, margin and profitability and delivering against our ambition for ground floors to contribute 10% of property revenues.
- Set exceptional operating standards across our bar, café, breakfast and ground-floor spaces, ensuring the experience works throughout the day and into the evening.
- Lead the development and feasibility of new Bar & Café concepts, ensuring they are commercially strong, operationally deliverable and scalable.
- Build demand beyond the staying guest, creating spaces that attract local customers and become destinations in their own right.
- Lead our approach to Bar & Café partnerships and third-party restaurant operators, determining where we operate directly and where partnering creates a stronger proposition.
- Set the commercial direction across pricing, procurement, suppliers, systems, stock and cost control.
- Lead and develop the Bar & Café function across Concept & Feasibility, Procurement, Systems & Pricing and Marketing.
- Work closely with Operations and Creative to ensure great concepts translate into great experiences on the ground.
- Build the Bar & Café operating model and capability required to support our continued growth.
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What You’ll Bring
- A proven track record as an outstanding operator, ideally within successful bar, independent restaurant, lifestyle hospitality or multi-site businesses.
- Deep experience of bars and evening trade, with a strong instinct for what creates atmosphere, drives footfall and builds a successful bar business.
- Experience across café, breakfast or all-day operations and an understanding of how spaces need to evolve throughout the day.
- Experience leading and scaling Bars & Cafe across Europe.
- Strong P&L ownership with a track record of growing revenue, margin and profitability.
- Strong commercial understanding across pricing, labour, stock, purchasing and suppliers.
- Experience opening, developing or repositioning successful Bars & Cafe venues or concepts.
- Strong customer instincts and an understanding of how to attract both staying guests and local customers.
- Experience working with third-party operators and commercial partners.
- A strong, hands-on leader who can lead specialist teams while remaining close to the operation.
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What Success Looks Like
- Our ground floors are vibrant, high-performing spaces that guests and locals actively choose to spend time in.
- Our bars become known for great atmosphere, service and evening trade.
- Our breakfast and café operations are simple, high quality and commercially strong.
- Ground-floor revenues grow towards our ambition of 10% of property revenue, supported by strong margins and profitability.
- New Bars & Cafe concepts perform commercially and can be successfully scaled across the portfolio.
- We have strong third-party operators and partnerships where they add more value than operating ourselves.
- Our Bars & Cafe function gives property teams the expertise, tools and support to deliver brilliant operations consistently.
We are particularly interested in people who have built their careers in great independent or multi-site bar, restaurant and lifestyle operators, rather than purely traditional hotel F&B. We want someone who knows what brilliant looks like on the ground and has the ambition to build it at scale.
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