Rocky ‘Hiroaki’ Aoki, the pioneer of Teppan-Yaki dining, opened the first Benihana restaurant in New York City in 1964.
The master franchise for Benihana outside the USA was acquired by Minor Food Group in May 2018, after 30 years of successfully operating Benihana franchised restaurants in Thailand. As the UK restaurant market was in decline, multiple new openings were not advisable. It was, however, apparent that there was a lot of interest from the international market for developing the estate through franchises.
psd was retained to search for a Managing Director who would be tasked with driving the franchised partnership model forwards, the remit being to grow Benihana through equity restaurants in the UK and through franchise agreements around the world.
A strong and sales-focussed approach was essential, with keen operational and openings experience to get the partnerships off the ground. The role could be based anywhere in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa or Asia, as considerable travel between the parent company in Thailand and the partnerships would be required.