Pizza Hut: The importance of flexibility in franchising

Matthew Moore, Pizza Hut UK & Ireland’s restaurant excellence and technology director, explains the importance of flexibility in its pizza franchise

With nearly 700 restaurants and delivery units across the UK and Ireland, our franchise network is integral to the success of our business and our franchisees are only going to become more so as we look to the future.

In May we announced an ambitious expansion strategy, with plans to open a total of 200 new delivery units across the UK and Ireland by 2020, and we aim to do this by attracting both existing and new franchisees.

Network

Currently, we have around 80 franchise entities in the UK and Ireland. Our largest operates over 270 restaurants and we have others who manage a handful of Huts. At the other end of the scale, we also have a number of franchisees who operate one or two units.

What this means is that we need to be extremely flexible with our approach to our franchisees, as each will require a different level of support. Those just starting out may need more oversight and guidance than those already operating 15 Huts.

What is clear to us is that whatever size or location, our franchisees are making an investment in our business and it’s our responsibility to provide the right level of support across our operations.

Initiatives

Since opening our first franchise operation in 2001, we have introduced a number of initiatives that enable us to help steer our franchisees in a successful direction.

Our franchise council is made up of both YUM leadership and our franchisees - often partners who have worked with us for a number of years.

The purpose of the council is to offer support to our colleagues and it acts as a bridge between franchisees and the YUM business. It’s a way for franchisees to meet their peers, share challenges as well as any solutions to common problems or queries they may encounter.

We also have a marketing board, which is again made up of franchisees alongside representatives from across the YUM business.

As a franchise business, we set a central marketing strategy for the brand that can often mean introducing special deals, new products or new initiatives at our Huts. It’s therefore hugely important we have the buy-in from our franchisees before we launch any campaigns. This helps us to ensure our campaigns are understood by our franchisees, but also - and importantly- that they are effective.

Operational excellence is foundational to our business and, as such, that is the focus of our operations board. In the operations board YUM leadership works shoulder to shoulder with our franchisee partners to address operational topics, looking to leverage both technology and people capability as enablers.

It’s our shared belief that this three-point focus will not only unlock operational improvement, but also our customer experience going forward.

Training

For those franchisees who are starting out for the first time, we offer a robust training and development programme. We know we can only deliver faultless day-to-day operations if the team looking after our customers has the right skills.

It’s our responsibility to equip these teams with the right level of training and support and we spend a lot of time and money providing this to make sure customers are always delighted with the service we provide.

When they join us, each franchisee will go through a comprehensive in-store training programme, where they will learn all the basics needed to run a successful Delivery Hut - including recruitment, marketing and operations.

Importantly, our training takes place over a number of weeks and we ensure that it’s tailored to previous experience, as well as the role the franchisee plans to play in the business.

In some cases they will have a very hands-on role, while in others they will employ a principal operator to handle the day-to-day running of the Hut.

The key to a good franchise business is having the ability to provide the right level of guidance for franchisees. Each entity is different and each individual within it has his or her own style and approach and it’s our job to be flexible and respond to that.

I’m confident that through our various franchise programmes we offer a nurturing environment that helps our partners to succeed. After all, we’ve been offering franchise opportunities in the UK since 2001 and we continue to have plans for further ambitious growth in the years to come.