Paul Rickels Email & Phone Number

Arlington, Tx, Us

Dallas/Fort Worth Area

Canton, Ohio

Oversight of company operations and franchise support. Directed efforts of operations, training, and culinary teams. Developed training program into a four week, syllabus led training for both company GMs/AMs and franchise operators. Renegotiated distribution agreement, redesigned recipe book, and modified training manuals to include the "why." Improved communications through weekly video conference calls with marketing, operations and culinary team members. Initiated weekly operations call with District Managers and General Managers. Created, updated, and/or reformatted operations manuals, new store opening checklists, operations checklists. Created awards program for company stores.

North Canton, Ohio

Fort Worth, Texas

Built out the infrastructure for supporting our franchise growth; hiring Field Support Consultants, Director of IT, Director of Training, V.P. of Franchise Development.Provided vision and support to solidify our brand at all guest touch points (in store POP, website, Facebook, advertisements).Standardized the menu offering for all stores by building consensus among top franchisees. Outsourced mystery shop program to ensure quality at the store level. Transitioned all stores to one POS platform, allowing for centralized analysis and capture of all store data.Moved IT support from outside vendor to internal support.Created job descriptions for all positions and assisted in building employee handbooks and policies for both store and corporate employees.Even though Fuzzy’s had a philosophy of not selling franchises, we grew from 32 stores to 79 stores in four years; increasing sales from 1.2 million a week to 2.2 million a week.Built a brand themed training room and executed a quarterly training program for all new franchise owners and existing personnel.Provided vision and strategy to move all stores to a digital menu board by the end of 2015.Successfully built an annual meeting format, combining business and entertainment. Moved it from a $35,000 expenditure in 2011 to a vendor funded event with a budget of $160,000.Improved communications through weekly newsletter, reducing daily emails for individuals to the enterprise.Hired a Public Relations specialist to build our crisis management plan and assist in building the brand as we expand.

Company Summary:Franchise division of consumer electronics retailer, with 69 corporate associates, producing over $200 million in annual revenues, through 1300+ independently owned franchise stores. Vice President Franchise: Provided overall leadership, strategy and vision to channel; delivering consistent direction, communications and expectations to individuals and team. Monitored behavior, activities and performance to ensure objectives were met, resulting in the delivery of superior customer service to franchisees and end-customers. Directed new business development and execution of brand compliance.• Budget management with review of financial operations: providing direction, ensuring accountability for $200M in wholesale business, reducing accounts receivables by $1.6M or 62% between 2005 and 2009.• Improved consistency of brand across franchise channel by developing, communicating and implementing a new franchise agreement and store operations manual. • Increased annual average store purchases by 55%, over 5-year period. • Reduced underperforming, non-compliant stores by 31%, while increasing revenue.• Built up an engaged and committed sales team (consisting of 2 Regional Managers, 34 District Sales Managers and 24 Sales Consultants) increasing annual, wholesale revenue 7 out of 10 years.• Developed on-boarding training programs for corporate associates and independent Franchise store owners.• Led and facilitated quarterly Focus Group meeting, consisting of 12 Franchisees. Committed to improving processes, programs and communications between RadioShack Corporation and 1300+ franchisees.• Event management with planning and execution of annual product expo/buying show with budgets ranging from $1.3 - $3.4M annually.

Responsible for operations of the Franchise Division including: sales, new store development, training, communications, and bookkeeping. Visited markets to train, mentor and develop regional directors and district managers. Provided vision to franchisees concerning business operations/processes and alignment to operations. • Functioned as “Subject Matter Expert” for various departments creating processes for an integrated customer service. • Created and introduced a brand compliance program called Mission Select, improving the quality of franchisees and representation of the brand.• Planned, executed and hosted the largest Expo Show in RadioShack Franchise history with over 4,500 attendees.• Shaped and hosted monthly training program via satellite broadcast and/or video.• New business development with growth of 550 outlets in 5 years.

Managed three regions of the country with approximately 10 direct reports in each region. Responsible for 400 – 600 franchise stores and approximately $20 million in revenues.• Created and implemented nationwide new defective returns program resulting in approximately $1.5 million in annual savings in returns and labor. Program is still in use today.• Promoted to turn around the St. Louis region, moving it from last in performance to the top region on the P/L scorecard.• Top regional manager in the country for 1989, producing top sales and expense control.• Responsible site selection, budgets and execution of annual regional buying shows, meetings and regional training workshops.

Ba, Communications/Business

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