After a 30-year franchising career, the veteran still admits to learning something new every day
Proving that actions speak louder than words, Ian Bradley’s latest venture is working at an advisor company for the first time. He has joined the franchise marketing, recruitment and resales business Chantry Group, in the newly created position of senior commercial manager and franchise growth specialist.
Ian will be using his decades of experience as a franchisor to build growth strategies for Chantry’s clients, including energy giant Shell, as well as supporting the company’s senior team on development.
He said: “I am absolutely delighted to join Chris and the Chantry team. Having known them for many years, I knew that not only was I joining an extended family, but a business with huge scalability and potential.
“With multiple product and service offerings, and experienced and highly skilled marketing, recruitment and resales teams to work with, my decision to join the Chantry Group was easy.
“The challenges that franchisors will face in the next few years will be our opportunity to partner with them, to develop growth strategies for their networks and to further develop their own franchise brand growth.”
Ian joins after five years as a franchise director building what is now the UK’s first nationwide window cleaning brand, taking the network from zero to 24 franchisees, even throughout the pandemic. The business won the coveted Emerging Franchisor of the Year award from the BFA and HSBC in 2020.
Previous career highlights include growing and selling his own franchise network, after which he supported the buyer to take the business through a successful IPO, and overseeing the growth of the Riverford Organic Farmers franchise network from its early days towards its status as a household name.
Ian was also elected by his peers to the British Franchise Association’s board of directors during his time at Riverford.
Chantry Group MD Chris Cook said: “Special things happen when you have a group of people with the same culture and belief working together. Ian’s approach and ethos perfectly align with our team’s, of always going the extra mile to help people achieve their goals.
“He’s got an enviable track record of growing franchise brands nationwide, with outstanding results across very diverse sectors. Ian ‘gets’ franchise businesses in a way I’ve rarely seen, with an inside-out knowledge of franchisee recruitment, resales and network operations and management.”
