General Manager
Location : Marsh Farm
Reports to: Parks Director
Direct Reports: Duty Managers, Department Heads (Retail, Food & Beverage, Operations, Events & Entertainment, all team)
Purpose of the Role
The General Manager is responsible for the day-to-day leadership, operational delivery and performance of Marsh Farm.
Working closely with the Parks Director, the GM brings the agreed commercial strategy, budget and plans to life, leading the team to deliver a safe, welcoming, commercially successful and consistently high-quality visitor experience.
This is a highly visible, hands-on leadership role. The GM leads from the front, builds a positive and accountable culture and creates an environment where teams understand what great looks like and are supported and challenged to deliver it.
Regular presence across the site is an important part of the role - walking the customer journey, engaging with guests and teams, recognising great performance and identifying opportunities to continuously improve the attraction.
Operational Leadership & Site Standards
- Take overall responsibility for the day-to-day operation of Marsh Farm, ensuring the site is safe, clean, compliant, welcoming and guest-ready.
- Maintain a strong and visible presence across the attraction, particularly during peak trading periods, events and weekends.
- Lead by example, regularly walking the customer journey and working with managers and teams to identify and resolve issues quickly and effectively.
- Create clear expectations around presentation, service and operational standards and ensure these are consistently delivered across all departments.
- Support managers to take ownership of their areas while maintaining an overall view of the operation and stepping in where additional leadership is required.
- Continuously look for opportunities to improve the operation, guest journey and overall quality of the attraction.
Commercial Delivery & Performance
- Take ownership of delivering the agreed commercial plans and budget, including revenue, Spend Per Head (SPH), payroll and cost control.
- Actively drive performance across ticket sales, retail, food & beverage, events and memberships, working with department managers to maximise commercial opportunities.
- Ensure retail areas are well stocked, correctly priced and presented to maximise sales.
- Work with teams to develop natural, customer-focused upselling, suggestive selling and guest engagement.
- Use daily and weekly performance information to understand what is working, identify opportunities and take action where performance can be improved.
- Understand the key drivers of the Marsh Farm P&L and ensure managers understand how their decisions and departments contribute to overall site performance.
People Leadership & Culture
- Lead, motivate, support and develop Duty Managers and department leaders, setting clear expectations while giving them the ownership and confidence to lead their areas.
- Build a positive, accountable and high-performing culture where people take pride in Marsh Farm and understand the contribution they make to its success.
- Recognise and celebrate great performance while providing constructive coaching and challenge where standards, behaviours or performance need to improve.
- Ensure teams are well trained, effectively deployed and understand their roles, responsibilities and priorities.
- Address behavioural or performance concerns promptly, consistently and fairly, escalating where appropriate.
- Support effective recruitment, onboarding, training and ongoing development across the site.
- Develop the capability of managers and future leaders, encouraging people to take ownership, make decisions and find solutions.
Customer Experience
- Champion a consistently welcoming, engaging and memorable visitor experience across Marsh Farm.
- Ensure teams understand and deliver agreed customer service standards, including greetings, engagement, presentation and problem resolution.
- Regularly experience the attraction through the eyes of the customer and identify opportunities to improve the journey.
- Review guest feedback and complaints, using these to identify trends, recognise what is working well and prevent repeat issues.
- Ensure first impressions - including the car park, entrance and toilets - and the final impression when guests leave are consistently positive.
- Encourage teams to create the small moments and interactions that turn a good visit into a great one.
Health, Safety & Compliance
- Ensure Marsh Farm operates in accordance with relevant health & safety legislation, food safety standards, animal welfare requirements, licensing conditions and company policies.
- Ensure appropriate risk assessments, checks, logs, inspections and SOPs are completed accurately and on time.
- Promote a strong safety culture where managers and team members understand that safety is everyone's responsibility.
- Act immediately on any safety, safeguarding or compliance concern.
- Work with the Parks Director and relevant specialists to continually improve standards and ensure identified actions are completed.
Events & Site Development
- Work collaboratively with the Parks Director, Guest Experience & Events Manager and wider team to successfully deliver Marsh Farm's programme of seasonal events and experiences.
- Ensure operational plans, staffing and site readiness are in place to deliver events safely and to a high standard.
- Support the introduction of new attractions, experiences and commercial initiatives.
- Provide operational insight into future developments, identifying opportunities to improve capacity, customer experience, efficiency and revenue.
- Help ensure Marsh Farm continues to evolve and remains a compelling reason for families to visit and return.
Communication, Reporting & Accountability
- Maintain open and effective communication with the Parks Director, providing clear updates on performance, people, challenges, opportunities and solutions.
- Participate fully in weekly performance reviews, operational meetings and planning sessions.
- Take ownership of agreed actions and ensure they are delivered within agreed timescales.
- Create strong communication across departments so managers understand wider site priorities rather than operating independently.
- Escalate significant risks or issues appropriately while taking ownership of finding solutions wherever possible.
Skills & Experience
- Proven experience managing operations within a leisure, visitor attraction, hospitality, retail or similarly customer-focused environment.
- Strong people leadership skills with experience of leading managers and frontline teams.
- Good commercial awareness with an understanding of revenue drivers, payroll, cost control and SPH.
- Confident decision-maker who is comfortable taking ownership and making decisions in a fast-moving environment.
- Strong organisational, communication and planning skills.
- Ability to balance commercial performance, customer experience, people leadership and operational standards.
- Comfortable working within a seasonal business where priorities and trading levels can change quickly.
Personal Attributes
- A visible, energetic and hands-on leader who leads by example.
- Positive, approachable and able to get the best from people.
- Commercially minded and naturally looks for opportunities to improve performance.
- Customer-focused with strong attention to detail.
- Accountable and comfortable taking ownership.
- Solutions-focused and resilient when things don't go to plan.
- Comfortable both being challenged and constructively challenging others.
- Able to set high standards while supporting people to achieve them.
- Proud to represent Marsh Farm and its values.
