To mark International Women’s Day 2023 Bedford Lodge Hotel & Spa, in Newmarket, Suffolk, will be recognising their female colleagues and celebrating how important and integral they are to the hotel and spa.
At the four AA Red Star hotel, the men are out numbered by women with over 70% of the workforce being made up of females. Even in a predominantly male environment, the kitchen brigade have eight empowering women working within a team team of twenty two; from Wanna Taylor who has been a Kitchen Porter at the hotel for the past 26 years, to Louise and Manuela, our two pastry chefs who “surprise and delight” us with their culinary skills delivering fantastic desserts and sweet treats for all our guests to enjoy.
Not only are we lucky to have some remarkable females in our business today, the hotels history is also peppered with notable women, most significantly Anna Maria, the Seventh Duke of Bedford’s wife, who is accredited with creating the cultural British phenomenon that is afternoon tea! Anna wanted something small to satisfy her hunger between lunch and dinner, her cooks came up with sweet and savoury delights and the afternoon tea ritual was born. Today this has become a slightly bigger affair and is now the ‘go to treat’ for any celebration.
Amy Fossett, Human Resources Manager, says: “On this International Women’s Day, we would like to celebrate the our amazing female workforce that we have at Bedford Lodge Hotel & Spa. Our company ethos is to offer a positive, engaging and rewarding working environment to all our staff members and we pride ourselves on being inclusive with a diverse team. We are delighted we have such powerful and professional ladies within our team, who strive to deliver a 4 star experience to our guests every day”.