Indian street food and café brand Chaiiwala has appointed Ben Clayton as its new chief operating officer.
Clayton will be responsible for ensuring franchisees and their teams deliver operational best practices. He will also maintain strong relationships with franchisees and helping them to unlock opportunities to deliver profitable growth.
He joins the business, which has more than 130 stores globally, from KFC franchisee Splendid Restaurants, where he served as managing director.
Prior to this, Clayton spent nearly a decade at TGI Fridays working across several senior operational roles, including senior director for restaurant excellence, where he led people, operations, training and project management across 60 countries.
He has also held senior roles at Papa Johns UK and Papa Johns International.
“We’re delighted to welcome Ben Clayton to Chaiiwala,” said Chaiiwala co-founder and CEO Muhammed Ibrahim. “In this role, we have someone who brings unrivalled experience on both sides of franchising that can help us continue evolving our internal practices and – ultimately – realise the global potential of our brand.
“We genuinely believe that Chaiiwala can become the global leader in Indian street food. We have a fantastic brand and customer proposition that is making traditional Indian flavours more accessible at all dayparts, a proven operating model, and growing and equally ambitious franchise network. Ben will help us continue driving forward with even more momentum, ensuring that we continue winning with our customers and franchisees as we scale.”
Clayton added: “I am super excited to be joining Chaiiwala as COO. As more consumers look at the world beyond coffee, pizza and burgers, I see a huge opportunity to continue building this brand and delivering strong results for our franchised partners. I can’t wait to get going.”
His appointment follows the brand’s trading update last week, which saw its global sales jump by 35% to £89.4m in 2024 as it pushed ahead with a store expansion strategy.
Chaiiwala opened 24 new stores last year, including 15 in the UK across a variety of formats such as drive-thru sites and travel locations.
It is now targeting 500 openings over the next decade and will be expanding to the US for the first time, with a site expected to open on the east coast by the first quarter of 2026.
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