CASE STUDY
BURGER KING
New Company Set-up
Burger King® (BK) is an American global chain of hamburger fast-food restaurants, serving more than 11 million customers daily around the world. As the second-largest hamburger chain in the world, it boasts nearly 18,000 outlets across 100 countries, 99.7% of which are privately-owned and operated under a franchise model.
Location – UK & Europe
Sector – Quick Service Restaurants
Client Since – 2017
THE HR
CHALLENGE
Following the acquisition of the UK master franchise agreement and major franchisee, BK approached us to help it set up a brand-new company (BK UK) to replace the previous arrangement that saw two separate companies running the UK business. Without a Head Office presence over here, the main challenge involved having to start the new company from absolute scratch. Its CFO and investors needed specialist insight and guidance on not only how it could be achieved, but also assurances that everything else required to get the franchise operational could be completed within the specified timeframe.
The areas causing the biggest headaches were how to arrange the TUPE-transfer of all the employees from the transferring organisations into the new master franchise; integrate BK’s stringent USA HR regulations in compliance with the European controller; and create all the new HR processes, policies and Ts & Cs for the new enterprise, along with its pay scales, reward packages and internal communications to keep everyone informed and reassured.
HOW WE
HELPED THEM
This was a biggie! Following 12 months of in-depth planning and continual liaison between the UK, USA and Europe, we had everything set up and good to go for the new franchise model to operate effectively. Specifically:
- We successfully TUPE-transferred everyone into the new structure (including European and USA personnel).
- We facilitated the change of offices, carried out an extensive restructure programme and established a Tier 2 Licence.
- We wrote processes and policies in line with the company culture, ensuring strict adherence to recently-introduced data protection and HMRC guidelines.
- We established performance-related bonus and reward schemes and reviewed all the ‘Due Diligence’ data to ensure that everyone’s terms and conditions were harmonised.
- We ran inductive USA-training requirements and mandatory legislative training needs programmes, including Return to Work (RTW), brand service delivery and anti-bribery and corruption workshops.
- We reviewed existing capabilities and areas for improvement and created a new organisational structure to meet the needs of the growing business, initiating a major recruitment campaign to sustain this.
- We devised internal and external PR communication plans for the business and ensured a smooth handover of information (e.g. established practices and historical records) to the incoming HR team and board.
WATCH
THE VIDEO
Hear and see Tim Doubleday explain why he chose People Factor HR to help and support the team with their HR issues when the new business was founded.
Excellent…
“The People Factor supported Burger King UK following the acquisition of the master franchise agreement and major franchisee. The service provided was excellent in helping us establish our new networking practices and integrating the two entities, providing us with a platform from which to grow our business.”
Tim Doubleday
CFO – Burger King
BUSINESS START-UPS
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
COMPANY RESTRUCTURES
ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN
