Punch is forming a New Business Division to provide dedicated support to all new tenants and lessees.
From August a team of around 20 New Business Development Managers (NBDMs) will be led by operations director Paul Pavli to help new partners, including assignees, for the first six months, providing them with training, development, marketing, product, legal and financial advice.
The existing roles of Regional Launch Managers (RLMs) and Punch Franchise Tenancy Agreement (PFT) managers will be merged into duties of the NBDMs, who will project manage around 450 new investments during the financial year, including an estimated 300 new partners and 150 assignments.
Partner Development Managers will still be responsible for finding and recruiting new partners, but they will hand them over to the NBDMs and keep track of their progress, before taking them back once their businesses are established.
Punch’s chief operating officer Neil Griffiths said: “We recognise that investment is a key driver to our partners’ success, backed by tailored support provided in those critical first six months.
“We have been hugely encouraged by the impact that both our RLMs and the PFTs have already had on improving the performance of our newly launched businesses and we are keen to build on this success as we move forward as a business. Partner feedback has been brilliant.”
Griffiths added: “We are criticised for new partner failures. But 80%-plus are still with us after two years. This new division is about resourcing new partners as well as possible and achieving a jaw-dropping experience for them and their customers.”
The turnaround division of around 1,400 pubs, currently run by Pavli, will now report to operations directors Giles Kendall and David Wigham.
