Business Development Manager – Foodservice & Contract Catering
London-based | Field role | UK travel as required
Especial is looking for an exceptional Business Development Manager to join our team. This is a role for someone who excels in winning business, enjoys building new relationships and is motivated by ambitious sales targets. For 25 years, Especial has worked behind the scenes of the foodservice and hospitality industry, creating and supplying distinctive food presentation and OS&E solutions for some of the world’s best-known brands, operators and destinations. We work across contract catering, corporate hospitality, retail, hotels, restaurants, private travel, stadia and major events. Our work ranges from high-volume foodservice environments to premium hospitality, complex mobilisations, bespoke product development and international projects. Especial’s approach spans the full process from understanding a client’s operational and creative requirements through planning, sourcing and product development to project delivery and ongoing support. Our approach is consultative. We listen, understand the operational challenge and the creative ambition, and then develop the right solution. That might mean curating products from our global supply network, developing something completely bespoke, mobilising an OS&E project or supporting a client relationship over many years. Now we are looking for someone who can turn that capability into significant new business.
The role - This is a new-business-focused role for someone who is commercially ambitious, has strong industry connections and is motivated by winning. Your focus will be on developing new business and expanding our presence within existing and target organisations. You will identify opportunities at every level—from an individual site requirement to national account opportunities, mobilisations and major projects—and work with the wider Especial team to turn those opportunities into commercially successful, long-term relationships. Much of our client base and new business opportunity is in London and the South East, so we are looking for someone London-based who enjoys being out in the market: meeting clients, opening doors, understanding projects and developing opportunities.This is an autonomous, field-based role. There is no expectation to report to an office every day, but you will need to travel to our Cirencester base and to client locations and project sites around the UK when required.
Who we are looking for - You will already have an established network within UK contract catering and foodservice and understand how to navigate large, complex organisations—from site-level operations and chefs through to procurement, mobilisation teams and senior decision-makers.You may currently work for an equipment, tableware, light catering equipment, OS&E or specialist foodservice supplier. Alternatively, you may have developed your career within the contract catering sector and have the commercial relationships, knowledge and instinct to move successfully into a specialist supplier environment.
Experience of working with or selling into major contract caterers and other national operators—would be highly valuable.You will understand that winning significant business in this sector is rarely about sending a catalogue or responding to a price request. It is about finding the opportunity, understanding who influences the decision, building relationships, asking the right questions and staying close to an opportunity until it becomes business.
We are looking for someone who is:
- Commercially hungry and genuinely motivated by winning new business.
- Comfortable working to clear sales targets and being accountable for results.
- Confident opening doors and creating opportunities from a cold start.
- Able to grow a small opportunity into a significant commercial relationship.
- Persistent and resilient, with the patience to manage complex sales cycles.
- Credible with chefs, operators, procurement teams, mobilisation teams and senior decision-makers.
- Commercially astute, with an understanding of margin, opportunity value and where to invest time.
- Naturally proactive and able to create their own momentum.
- Comfortable working autonomously without being micromanaged.
- Collaborative enough to bring opportunities into the wider Especial team and use our product, sourcing, creative and operational expertise to develop the right solution.
What makes Especial different - Especial is a small, independent, entrepreneurial business with a strong reputation, an established client base and a history of delivering exceptional projects. We are not a traditional catalogue-led catering equipment company. We combine operational understanding with a strong design sensibility. Our capabilities include foodservice concept development, OS&E project mobilisation, product procurement, bespoke product development and ongoing project support. The deck demonstrates this across work in corporate foodservice, stadia and international hospitality projects. We are a close-knit and genuinely supportive team. We work hard, care deeply about what we deliver and enjoy working together. We do not believe in micromanagement. We do believe in ambition, accountability and giving talented people the freedom and support to succeed. For the right person, this is an opportunity to join a well-established specialist business at an important point in its growth and to have a genuine influence on where we go next. If you know the foodservice industry, have the relationships, commercial drive and determination to win, we would love to hear from you.
Find out more about Especial and send us your CV together with a short introduction explaining why you believe you could make a difference to our business.
Pay: Up to £65,947.09 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Work from home
Work Location: On the road
