Background
GAIL's Bakery is one of the UK's most recognisable artisan bakery brands, known for its high-quality products, welcoming neighbourhood bakeries and commitment to customer experience.
With a growing estate of busy bakery locations, GAIL's needed strong facilities support to keep each site safe, well-maintained and fully operational. In a food retail business, facilities issues affect trading directly, so minimising disruption and maintaining the standards customers expect from the brand is a commercial matter as much as an operational one.
The Challenge
GAIL's approached Maxwell Stephens to recruit a Facilities Assistant who could provide essential support to the Facilities Manager and act as the link between bakery teams, contractors and operational stakeholders.
The role required someone highly organised, proactive and confident managing multiple maintenance requests and small projects across a fast-moving, multi-site retail environment. Key responsibilities included:
- Coordinating facilities requests across multiple bakery locations
- Liaising with bakery managers, contractors and internal teams
- Supporting planned and reactive maintenance activity
- Monitoring contractor attendance and service delivery
- Using Pronett to manage facilities tasks and reporting
- Supporting small works and operational projects
- Maintaining clear communication between all parties
- Helping to keep bakery environments safe, compliant and well presented
Assistant-level facilities roles in multi-site retail are harder to fill well than the title suggests. The person is rarely on site when a problem arises, so they have to get the right contractor to the right bakery quickly, chase attendance and keep site managers informed, all while managing a queue of other requests. The successful candidate therefore needed to combine excellent communication skills with strong attention to detail and the ability to prioritise effectively in a busy, customer-facing business.
Our Approach
Maxwell Stephens ran a targeted search for facilities management professionals with experience in retail, hospitality, food service or other multi-site operational environments. Candidates from those backgrounds already understand the rhythm of a trading site and the pressure a facilities fault puts on a store team.
Our assessment focused on candidates who could demonstrate:
- Coordination and administration. Strong organisational skills, attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines.
- Contractor management. Experience dealing with contractors and service providers, including chasing attendance and checking that work has been completed.
- Systems confidence. Familiarity with facilities systems such as Pronett, so that task logging and reporting would not need to be learned from scratch.
- Communication. Clear, prompt communication with site teams and operational managers.
- Attitude. A proactive, practical and service-led approach.
Given the pace of GAIL's operations, cultural fit was also essential. The successful candidate needed to be approachable, responsive and able to support bakery teams with professionalism and urgency.
The Outcome
Maxwell Stephens identified and placed a Facilities Assistant who closely matched GAIL's requirements. The appointed candidate brought strong facilities coordination experience, excellent communication skills and practical knowledge of Pronett, which allowed them to contribute to the facilities team immediately.
Their appointment helped improve:
- Coordination between bakery locations and external contractors
- Visibility and tracking of maintenance requests
- Response times for facilities issues
- Communication with operational teams
- Support for small projects and maintenance activity
- Overall efficiency across the facilities function
By providing organised and proactive support, the Facilities Assistant helped GAIL's bakeries continue to operate smoothly, safely and efficiently, leaving site teams free to focus on the customer experience the brand is known for.
Why This Placement Worked
The search treated the role as a coordination job rather than an administrative one. Experience of multi-site trading environments, hands-on contractor management and existing familiarity with the client's facilities system were weighted ahead of general office experience, and the result was a hire who could contribute from the outset.
Maxwell Stephens recruits practical facilities management professionals for fast-paced, multi-site retail and hospitality environments. If you need facilities support across a growing estate, get in touch with our team.