Vice President - Food and Beverage

The Vice President - Food and Beverage is responsible for leading a high performing food and beverage department at a new state-of-the-art professional baseball facility. This position will be responsible for building a culture that focuses on preparation, hard work, recognition, and professional development. The Vice President - Food and Beverage oversees strategies directly impacting the overall growth of food and beverage sales and revenue attributable to the Carolina Mudcats/Wilson Warbirds' Food and Beverage department including: concessions, portables, suites, bars, picnics areas, and party decks for all games and events.

Responsibilities include the following. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Other duties may be assigned.

Develop and implement short- and long-term strategies to maximize food and beverage sales and revenue
• Set and drive the strategy for food and beverage sales initiatives, programming, and coordination between departments including, but is not limited to, creating, developing, and implementing departmental strategies and goals for both short-term and long-term food and beverage sales growth and service excellence
• Direct and implement menu design and pricing strategies in partnership and with input from the President, Executive Chef and other colleagues as assigned
• Work in coordination with the President to develop annual food and beverage revenue models
• Maintain budgetary responsibility for all food and beverage operations including concessions, suites, picnic areas, bars, party decks, clubs, warehouse, culinary, and other areas as assigned
• Provide strategic insight based on market research and competitor analysis to deliver pricing and menu recommendations for all food and beverage offerings
• Manage all food and beverage inventories to ensure availability of all products necessary to support the operation
• Oversee scheduling for all front of house and back of house food and beverage gameday staff to ensure appropriate staffing levels are maintained for all 66 home games and a variety of year-round events
• Proactively partner with colleagues to align resources for creative thematic food and beverage offerings for promotional and theme nights
• Lead timely outreach to all suite, picnic, hospitality, and party deck clients to discuss food and beverage needs for their scheduled game
• Craft Banquet Event Orders (BEO) to effectively document and convey client's needs to appropriate parties including culinary, operations, and warehouse, to ensure proper event support
• Work closely with colleagues and event planners to provide necessary food and beverage support to all non-baseball events.
• Lead the purchasing of food and beverage products to ensure timely delivery and appropriate warehousing in support of games and events
• Maintain appropriate inventories at each concession stand, portable, bar, warehouse, and commissary to ensure continuity of service during all games and events
• Effectively use attendance data to forecast and plan for gameday food and beverage service products and staffing
• Prepare necessary logs and reports customary in the effective and safe management of a professional, high-quality, food and beverage operation
• Adhere to all organizational requirements and any local, state laws and regulations governing the safe and responsible handling and service of food and beverage
• Arrange for all appropriate trainings and certifications required by all governing entities relative to safe and responsible service food and alcohol service
• Coordinate and collaborate with the Marketing Department in the creation of sales and service materials including manus, brochures, flyers, and all other support materials
• Ensure effective management and maintenance of the Point-of-Sale systems at the ballpark
• Manage market research tools and assess new and creative culinary offerings to introduce to the menu
• Lead weekly BEO meetings with the ticket sales and sponsorship teams to ensure all event needs are accounted for and met
• Prepare and present various reports to the President including but not limited to weekly revenue reports, budget forecasts, trend analysis, cost of goods reports, on a weekly basis or as requested.
• Ensure high customer satisfaction at all points of sale through the utilization of a "customer-first" philosophy focused on delivering unsurpassed customer service

Supervisory Responsibilities

Directly supervises Full Time Food and Beverage Staff. Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems.

Qualifications To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

• Must be knowledgeable and aware of industry best practices and be willing to innovate and upgrade the Warbirds' business practices when appropriate.
• A minimum of 5-7 years in food and beverage sales and operations, at least five of which in sports or live entertainment
• Prior management experience
• Proven ability to make sound business decisions and outlining "next steps"
• Proven success managing and performing in multi-tasking environment
• Experience with tight deadlines for managing projects
• Proven ability to exercise creative problem solving
• Team-oriented with a healthy and positive attitude
• Proven excellent verbal and written skills
• Experience developing planning tools, budgets, projections, etc.
• Proven ability to effectively present plans and projections to senior management/ownership
• Proven ability to build strong relationships with outside vendors and possess strong negotiating
• Demonstrated sound organizational and coordination skills for delegating tasks
• Proven job reliability, diligence, dedication and attention to detail
• Must be flexible with working nights, weekends, and holidays
• Demonstrated proficiency in metrics typical for the professional food and beverage/catering/food services industry

Education and/or Experience

Bachelor's degree (B. A.) from four-year college or university and four to ten years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience. Master's degree a plus.

Work Hours

Business hours are Monday - Friday 9 am - 5pm, however, additional hours may be required on weekends, evenings and some holidays.