New role to lead food and drink for future growth

A west Yorkshire business has created a new role to spearhead food and drink initiatives as it prepares for future growth.

Sarah Dwyer, who led the development of Hearty’s Food Hall at Tong Garden Centre from concept to its completion in 2021, has been appointed to the new Head of Food position.

The new role will lead Hearty’s food Hall and the Blooms Kitchen and Mezzanine at Tong and all restaurants at the Tingley garden centre that are due to open later this year.  Sarah will be responsible for creating customer experiences throughout the dining concepts, complementing the Hearty’s range and building on the business ‘known for’ offering created by the in-house butchery and bakery teams.

Tong’s MD, Mark Farnsworth said: “Given the growth and success of our dining offer at Tong to date, the expansion of our Tong prep kitchen, the redevelopment of our Foodhall to Hearty’s and our exciting expansion plans with Tingley, it’s the right time to put a specific Food structure in place to take our food proposition forward and Sarah is the perfect person to lead this.” 

Covering a 19-acre site in Tong village near Bradford, the business is one of Yorkshire’s biggest independent garden centres with 125,000 square feet of retail space and parking for up to 700 cars.

Of her new role within the award-winning business Sarah said: “This is a great opportunity to understand food trends, leverage our food supplier base and create a cohesive approach with our restaurant concepts and Hearty’s. 

“With the help of the food team, we will be championing Tong made products including customer favourites from vanilla slices to meat pies, plus our extensive range of food and drink from local and artisan suppliers, many from within the county.

“I’m looking forward to working with our amazing food team across all restaurants and Hearty’s to enhance and evolve our customers food and drink experience, both here at Tong and at Tingley in the near future.”

For more information about Tong Garden Centre visit their website www.tonggardencentre.co.uk