Operations Manager

About Us:

Emirates Leisure Retail (ELR) is a global leader in food and beverage retail, operating over 300 restaurants, cafés, and bars across six countries. Our portfolio features beloved international brands like Costa Coffee and Pret A Manger, and distinctive homegrown concepts such as Mr. Toad’s, Saddle, and the award-winning ZOMA in Zanzibar. With such diversity, we deliver experiences that truly offer something for everyone.

As proud subsidiaries of the Emirates Group, MMI & ELR share one mission: to bring more to life. Guided by our HERO values: Honesty, Excellence, Respect, and Opportunity, we create memorable moments for our customers, our people, and the communities we serve.

Job Purpose:

Responsible for leading the operational performance of an assigned Costa store portfolio. The role shares operational leadership of Costa stores with a counterpart Operations Manager, ensuring consistent delivery of customer experience, brand standards, sales, profitability, people capability and operational discipline. The job holder works closely with Area Managers and support functions to translate business priorities into clear action, build high-performing store teams and deliver sustainable commercial results. The role also supports the regular review of Costa’s operating routines, store infrastructure and business plan milestones, ensuring operational activity remains aligned to brand standards, commercial priorities and future growth requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead operational performance across the assigned Costa store portfolio, ensuring brand, service and compliance standards.
• Partner with Operations leadership to drive consistency and alignment across all stores. Execute business priorities through Area Managers, ensuring accountability and operational excellence.
• Drive sales, profitability and cost control through effective labour, stock and waste management.
• Coach and develop Area Managers to build high-performing teams and succession pipelines.
• Analyse operational and financial performance to identify opportunities and improve results.
• Ensure consistent execution of promotions, product launches and brand initiatives. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to enhance commercial and operational performance.
• Support recruitment, capability development, retention and performance management. Maintain strong store governance through regular site visits, business reviews and performance follow-up.

Required Experience, Skills & Qualification:

• Degree level education or equivalent operational leadership experience.
• Significant multi-site operations experience within coffee, food and beverage, quick service restaurant, retail or hospitality environments.
• Proven experience leading through Area Managers or equivalent field leadership roles across a sizeable store estate.
• Strong commercial understanding, including sales growth, labour control, profit delivery, stock management, waste reduction and store-level performance management.
• Confident interpreting financial, operational and customer data to diagnose issues and drive practical action.
• Strong knowledge of brand standards, food safety, health and safety, audit compliance and customer experience

Why Join Us?

Join a team of experienced professionals who are experts in the industry. We want to create memories and provide an exceptional experience to every customer on every visit. That's why we're passionate about offering a wide variety of delicious and high-quality products. We’re committed to sustainable practices, reducing our environmental impact, and giving back to the communities that we operate in. We're committed to putting our people first by creating a positive and supportive work environment where everyone feels valued and respected.

How to apply

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