UK family restaurant visits have nearly halved over the past few years, down from seven a month to four. When the category is discretionary, every visit has to do the work the volume used to. And in a franchise system already navigating regulatory pressure, aggregator commissions of 20 to 30%, and margin compression at the unit level, the relationship between franchisor and franchisee gets tested.
Oliver Rodbard is Chief Operating Officer at Creams Cafe. Nearly 100 UK sites, 60 franchisees, 98% franchised. He joined almost three years ago to strengthen the franchise relationship across the system, and has been doing that while simultaneously implementing a full tech transformation (new EPOS, new customer app, the just-launched Creams Direct), launching a direct-delivery platform that's already done close to £1m in 10 weeks, and preparing for international expansion.
His 17-year career sits across YUM! Brands (Pizza Hut Europe and Canada), Freshii, and Soul Foods Group in Canada, where he ran a 400+ store multi-brand portfolio including Starbucks, KFC, Burger King and Taco Bell. He's seen franchise systems from both sides of the table.
In this conversation with Conor Sheridan, Oliver walks through the operational playbook. Why "the contract doesn't govern the relationship, trust does." Why vertical integration (Creams' two manufacturing plants in East London and near Dunstable) is the single biggest reason the brand has held inflation to ~19% while UK food service has run ~59.5%. The franchise onboarding discipline that screens for cultural fit because "divorce is painful". The "absolutely maniacal" testing process every product, training change and piece of technology has to go through before a rollout. The strategic call to compete directly with aggregators via Creams Direct so that delivery margin lands with the franchisee rather than the platform. And the brand-purpose work ("bringing people together") that turned a service-model relaunch into a culture exercise rather than a process exercise.
Whether you're running a franchise system, considering one, or just thinking about partnership economics in a sector under serious pressure, this is an hour well spent.
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