Head of Retail Operations
Company Overview
FES Cafe & Desserts is a fast-growing cafe and dessert brand currently operating approximately 10 stores and entering its next phase of expansion. The brand emphasizes maintaining a strong culture, high-quality offerings, agility, and exceptional customer experiences.
Job Summary
The Head of Retail Operations is a pivotal role focused on scaling the business from 10 to 50+ stores while preserving the brand’s essence. This position requires a builder mindset, dedicated to developing systems that support aggressive growth in a dynamic food brand environment. The successful candidate will work directly with the Founder and serve as the operational backbone of the company.
Responsibilities
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Retail Operations & Business Performance:
- Lead operations across all current and upcoming stores.
- Drive same store sales growth (SSSG) and overall store profitability.
- Monitor and improve key business metrics including sales growth, average order value (AOV), labor productivity, food costs, store earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), customer experience, and throughput.
- Build operational systems and processes to support 50+ stores.
- Ensure operational consistency while maintaining the brand's agility and energy.
- Create accountability frameworks for store and cluster teams.
- Enhance operational efficiency, execution quality, and customer experience across all locations.
- Manage seasonal business fluctuations, forecasting, and operational planning.
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New Store Openings (NSO):
- Oversee end-to-end execution of all new store launches.
- Coordinate with projects, procurement, vendors, HR, training, finance, and operations teams.
- Ensure timely, budget-compliant store launches aligned with brand standards.
- Handle licensing, compliance, equipment planning, procurement, store setup, launch readiness, and manpower planning.
- Develop scalable NSO systems and playbooks for future expansion.
- Guarantee operational readiness from Day 1 for every new location.
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Team Leadership & Culture:
- Build and lead a robust operations structure capable of rapid scaling.
- Hire, mentor, and develop cluster managers, store managers, and operations teams.
- Create systems for accountability, reporting, training, and performance management.
- Ensure the culture and DNA of FES evolves positively as the company scales.
- Serve as the operational leader, maintaining business cohesion while the founder focuses on growth and fundraising.
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Strategic Ownership:
- Collaborate with the Founder on expansion strategy and operational scale.
- Take ownership of operational decision-making and execution.
- Build processes and structures for sustainable long-term growth.
- Work closely with supply chain, central kitchen, finance, marketing, and HR teams.
- Drive operational readiness for future fundraising and aggressive expansion.
- Leverage data and operational insights to continuously enhance business performance.
Qualifications
- Extensive experience in scaling multi-location quick-service restaurants (QSR), cafes, or retail food businesses.
- Proven track record in managing or building operational structures for 30 to 50+ stores.
- Strong grasp of operations, profitability, expansion, and systemic development.
- In-depth understanding of store-level Profit and Loss statements (P&Ls) and unit economics.
- Significant experience in New Store Openings (NSO).
- Entrepreneurial mindset with robust execution capability.
- Highly numbers-driven with strong commercial awareness.
- Proven ability to independently drive outcomes and decision-making.
- Comfortable in fast-paced, founder-led environments.
- Strong leadership and team-building skills.
- Resilient under pressure and solution-oriented.
Preferred Skills
- Backgrounds from:
- QSR brands
- Cafe chains
- High-growth food retail brands
- Founder-led consumer businesses
- Multi-unit retail operations
- Experience with notable brands such as Starbucks, Third Wave Coffee, Blue Tokai, Chai Point, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Rebel Foods, etc.
Experience
- Significant relevant experience in operations and management within the food service or retail sectors.
Environment
- The role will be primarily located in Gurgaon / NCR in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment focused on growth.
Salary
Growth Opportunities
- Opportunity to shape a fast-growing consumer brand, with high ownership, decision-making authority, and leadership potential for scaling the business nationally.
Benefits
