About the Role:

We are looking for a senior leader to head and scale the franchise business for a leading and rapidly growing consumer-facing organisation.

The role will be responsible for driving franchise expansion, acquiring and managing franchise partners, ensuring smooth store launches, and building a high-performing franchise network across key markets.

This is a leadership role requiring a strong combination of business development, franchise operations, partner management and retail understanding.

Key Responsibilities:

Franchise Growth & Expansion:

- Drive the overall growth and expansion strategy for the franchise business.

- Identify, evaluate and onboard potential franchise partners across key markets.

- Build and manage a strong pipeline of prospective franchisees.

- Lead commercial discussions and negotiations with potential partners.

- Work closely with internal teams to ensure timely closure of franchise agreements.

Franchise Partner Management:

- Act as the primary relationship owner for franchise partners.

- Build strong and long-term relationships with franchisees.

- Conduct regular business reviews and support partners in improving business performance.

- Work with franchise partners on store productivity, profitability, inventory and operational efficiency.

- Drive franchisee satisfaction and retention.

Store Launch & Operations:

- Ensure seamless onboarding and timely go-live of franchise stores.

- Work closely with cross-functional teams including real estate, projects, retail operations, finance and legal.

- Manage the end-to-end journey from franchise signing to store launch.

- Monitor store performance and work with internal teams and partners to drive business improvement.

- Ensure adherence to operational SOPs, brand standards and customer experience guidelines.

Team Leadership:

- Lead and develop a team of regional/area franchise managers.

- Manage the programme management and coordination team supporting franchise launches and ongoing operations.

- Build a strong culture of ownership, accountability and commercial performance.

Candidate Profile:

- 8-15 years of experience in franchise management, retail expansion, business development or multi-unit retail operations.

- Experience in building and scaling a franchise network would be highly preferred.

- Strong exposure to franchise partner acquisition, negotiations, onboarding and relationship management.

- Good understanding of store economics, retail operations and business profitability.

- Experience from consumer-facing, retail, lifestyle, fashion, jewellery, QSR or other multi-unit businesses would be relevant.

- Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills.

- Demonstrated experience in leading teams and managing geographically distributed partner networks.

Key Skills:

Franchise Management - Franchise Expansion - Business Development - Partner Acquisition - Retail Operations - Store Expansion - Partner Management - Commercial Negotiation - Multi-Unit Operations - Team Leadership