Boparan Ventures

Boparan Restaurant Group is a growing family. They are a collection of restaurant brands that each carry their own personality, but share a passion for creating contemporary food and drink experiences that make people happy.
With 6 quality brands operating in almost 100 sites alongside a strong franchise business with 40 sites in the UK and abroad, they intend to quickly establish Boparan Restaurant Group as a major player in the hospitality market. Their objective is to further strengthen and grow the positions of all their brands nationally and internationally.

Boparan Ventures is the investment arm of Ranjit Boparan, the millionaire entrepreneur behind the Midlands-based 2 Sisters Food distribution empire. In 2008, Boparan Ventures acquired 5 Fishworks restaurants after their parent company went into administration.
Following a successful period under new ownership for the restaurants, the business was expanded in 2010 with the recent acquisition of the Harry Ramsdens chain of restaurants in the UK. The restaurant chain had undergone several changes of ownership over the previous decade and the sites and back office functions were in a poor state and in need of investment.

The newly appointed CFO contacted Harcourt Matthews, having previously been a candidate, to discuss the remit of recruiting an entirely new team and building a robust finance department with all the relevant systems, including purchase order (PO) system, MI, KPI’s, from scratch. Due to the immediate need and the dynamic nature of both the business and the market sector, we initially recruited the team on a temporary basis, with each candidate subsequently being offered a permanent position.
The range of roles recruited for include:

  • Accounts Payable & Receivable Manager: with specific experience of creating an AP system
  • Reporting Analyst: part qualified accountant with a strong academic track record and an enthusiasm to develop in a small but fast growing entrpreneurial business
  • Cash Analyst: recruited to catch up on outstanding bank reconciliations over 6 months old
  • Finance Manager: to lead the new team, develop the reporting systems and take full P&L responsibility with experience of working in a retail SME

Boparan is continuing to evolve with ad-hoc recruitment needs being supported on a temporary and permanent basis. Additionally, as the result of our success with Boparan, the client has recommended Harcourt Matthews to another multi-site retailer, who we are now supporting as a recruitment partner

Harcourt Matthews established recruitment campaigns and range of candidate sourcing processes to attract a wide range of candidate types encompassing

  • Accessing our network & extensive CV database, existing contacts and gaining new referrals / recommendations
  • Accessing several jobsite CV databases covering the active UK candidate market, particularly useful for temporary & interim staffing
  • Advertising on several job boards
  • Using our internal and several 3rd party outsourced research businesses contracted to identify and to supply scarce candidate resource (passive & non active people)

This has resulted in supporting team building and the recruitment of several qualified & part qualified accountants and accounting staff for the UK business.

Jobs recruited for include: Interim, temporary & permanent
Accounts Assistant
Accounts Payable & Receivable Manager
Cash Analyst
Finance Manager
Financial Accountant
Head of Finance
Invoice Clerk
Reporting Analyst