Harry Ramsdens

“I’m trying to avoid handing out single franchisees because it’s very difficult to manage 500 different partners.” Teixeira said. “We now look towards franchisees that can open between five and 20 sites within a specific allocated space.” 

Organisation growth

One surprising addition though, has been the inception of its own licensed products hitting UK shelves, as Teixeira explained: “We entered into a partnership with Birdseye on developing a frozen fish retail product and it was so well received by our customers it took us by surprise. 

“We’re now going to extend that agreement while also ramping up other areas, including – and I could never have dreamt that Harry Ramsden’s could command such a product - a chicken product in the retail environment.

Turbocharged investment

“The first stage we went through over the first 18 months was fixing what we had and resolving property issues in terms of the right sites and right investments,” Teixeira said. “Once we believed we had the right proposition in place, it was then a case of convincing the shareholders to invest in the business to allow it grow properly and we went about refurbishing the jewels in the crown at our key seaside resorts.”

The overriding ethos throughout all stages of development has been in establishing value for money within the business, meaning the best proposition for the price of the product, rather than simply the cheapest offering. 

Market leader

“We have a plan and five year vision but it needs to be updated and flexible enough to react to the market and the customer. What they want is what we do,” Teixeira said. “We want to make sure that what we do is consistently above the quality of our competitors and that the customers walk away understanding why they’ve paid for that experience in terms of value.”

In turn, Teixeira knows that Harry Ramsden’s’ notoriety in the UK will make any internal success a success for the industry in general, as the company strives to raise the general level of standards.

He concluded: “If Harry Ramsden’s is the market leader, it can only be good for the industry in my opinion. We have gone on a journey that the owners began in 1928. It lost its way in the past couple of decades and is coming back to dominate and our ambition is to be recognised around the world, commercially successful, employing thousands of people and having a positive impact on the economy.”