Loungers to invest £100,000 per year in management training
Café/bar/restaurant group Loungers is to invest £100,000 a year in its staff development programme which is set to start in March this year.
The company, which has 700 staff, will offer a training programme for all staff in management positions, in partnership with training company Watershed.
The training providing by Watershed will comprise up to eight day courses a year, dependant on position, which will focus on mechanical and emotive skills such as influencing and behavioural skills to profit performance and leadership development.
The training has been designed to complement Loungers' existing internal training days which cover barista training, WSET and licensing courses, and food based NVQs for front-of-house staff and chefs.
Watershed is led by Stephen Waters, who was head of the management academy and director of Pitcher & Piano during the early 1990s and Zoe Paskin, who was instrumental in the early success of the Brown's concept with Jeremy Mogford.
Jake Bishop, Loungers operations director said: "Clearly committing to invest £100k+ a year represents a huge investment for any business. However, we firmly believe that by investing in our people and in particular helping them to develop their personal skills the business will grow ever-stronger and that strength in depth will help the business to meet the demands of rapid expansion. We don't just want our people to be good we want them to be the best".
Loungers' next opening will be Impero Lounge in Portishead on 6 March. This will be followed by the opening of its sixth Cosy Club in Exeter on 15 April. A further nine sites are planned in for 2013.
