A Food & Beverage Manager forecasts, plans and controls the ordering of food and beverages (drinks) for a hospitality property. He also manages the finances related to the whole process of purchasing food and drink for the hotel premises. “Purchasing” includes sourcing, ordering and transporting of F&B.   In a hotel environment and often in a restaurant he may oversee the running of the restaurant and will be in charge of the staff in the restaurant.

Food & Beverage Manager responsibilities

The Food & Beverage Manager is responsible for:

Financial The job requires a lot of financial functions such as Purchasing F&B stock; Stock control; Storage control; Goods receiving; Planning and carrying out of F&B budgets; Budgets; Relevant financial reports and other financial duties.

Menu An F&B Manager is able to contribute to the design and update of menus for restaurants: working with the chef and assisting with menu planning; Keeping up with food trends and customer preferences for this purpose; Costing of menus

Managing Staff F&B Managers are often responsible for recruiting, hiring, training, evaluating and terminating F&B staff.

Customer Service Food and Beverage Managers are responsible for making sure that customers needs are addressed and attended to and that the service is always of a high standard, and thus would need to deal with any issues that might come up during daily service operations

Who does the Food & Beverage Manager report to?

The Food & Beverage Manager reports to the Financial Manager or the General Manager.

Who reports to the Food & Beverage Manager?

The F&B Manager may or may not have staff under his authority. If he does manage staff they are likely to be the Goods Receiving Manager or an assistant and is often in charge of the F&B staff (waitrons etc) in the restaurant itself.  He also liaises with the Financial Manager, the Storekeeper and the Executive Chef.

Qualifications

A Food & Beverage Manager should have a hospitality diploma and experience in similar positions in the hospitality field.

Skills

A Food & Beverage Manager must:

• Have great verbal and written communication skills
• Be proactive
• Possess excellent forecasting and budgeting skills
• Work well with colleagues
• Enjoy problem-solving
• Have a good understanding of inventory management systems
• Strong leadership skills

Job opportunities

A Food & Beverage Manager can work at a hotel, casino, safari lodge, beach resort, on a cruise ship or at a variety of hospitality properties – wherever food and drinks are served.