With the new Haskins Garden Centre restaurant on target to open by November, the training of 50 additional catering staff is underway. The new recruits were invited to meet some of the existing team at the West End, Southampton centre, collect their uniforms and have the opportunity to have a preview of the new £2.3m 460 seat contemporary restaurant that is now undergoing the final fit out by contractors. This included the new state of the art kitchens, storage areas, catering offices and customer toilets. Matt Hill, General Manager at the garden centre, said that the annual wage bill for the additional catering team that will included 4 full time chefs, will exceed £450,000.
“We have had over 300 applications for the vacancies and the selection process has been careful to build upon the friendly and helpful team we already employed.”