Geographic Expansion Projects Department System

Every expansion opportunity enters as a card in “Study”, gathering the location’s numbers: target density, competitors, rent, and expected demand. Once the study is approved the card moves to “Site” to settle the property, negotiate, and sign; then to “Fit-Out”, where design, permits, furnishing, and systems works are managed with clear due dates. In parallel, “Hiring” moves to recruit and train the site team before opening. On opening day the card moves to “Opening” with a final checklist; then to “Stabilization” for about three months, tracking the branch’s indicators until they hold; and finally “Evaluation” to document what worked and what changes at the next site.

Chat connects the central expansion team with field teams in the new cities: fit-out photos as they happen, contractor questions, and coordination of approval visits — so fieldwork never stalls waiting for email. Dues is the project’s live budget: rent and contractor payments, fit-out purchases, hiring and relocation costs — every item recorded against its site — so the expansion director knows each branch’s position against its approved budget in real time, before management is surprised by an overrun.

The expansion director owns the board and decides transitions between major stages; the studies officer prepares each site’s file with its numbers; the fit-out coordinator follows contractors and permits daily in the field; and the hiring officer starts the moment the card enters “Fit-Out”, not after it completes. Site selection decisions go up to management with the full study file compiled from the “Study” card, and each branch’s lessons in “Evaluation” become the next branch’s checklist.