Building a Leadership Team for a Growing International Hospitality Brand

Strategic Recruiting for a Hospitality Brand Entering the U.S. Market

When an international hospitality brand enters a new market, building the right leadership team can be challenging. Limited brand awareness, a competitive talent market, and highly specialized roles can make it difficult to attract the caliber of candidates needed to support a successful U.S. expansion.

Empowered Hospitality partnered with a growing UK-based quick-service restaurant brand as it established its presence in the United States. Since the brand entered the U.S. market in 2025, EH has made five leadership-level placements, helping the organization build its team across People & Training, Food, Kitchen Operations, Restaurant Management, and Operations.

Among those placements was the brand’s Head of Food, a particularly specialized search that required finding an A+ candidate with a specific combination of culinary and operational experience—all while recruiting for a relatively new brand in the New York market.

The Challenge: Recruiting Leadership for a New U.S. Market

Entering a new market presents unique recruiting challenges.

While the brand had an established presence in the UK, it was still building brand awareness in the United States. With only one New York City location at the time, the organization was competing for talent against more established hospitality brands with stronger recognition in the local market.

The Head of Food search presented an additional challenge. The position required a highly specific skill set, which narrowed the available talent pool and made identifying the right candidate particularly important.

The organization needed more than candidates who could simply fill an open position. It needed leaders who could help establish and grow the brand’s U.S. operation.

Key Challenges

• Recruiting for a UK-based brand entering the U.S. market
• Building awareness of a relatively new hospitality brand among local candidates
• Identifying highly qualified leadership talent in a competitive market
• Filling specialized roles with limited talent pools
• Finding candidates who could support the organization’s long-term U.S. growth
• Building multiple leadership positions as the brand expanded

Our Approach: Strategic Recruiting for U.S. Expansion

Empowered Hospitality partnered with the organization to identify and attract leadership talent aligned with its operational and growth needs.

Rather than treating each search as an isolated placement, EH developed an ongoing recruiting partnership with the organization, supporting multiple leadership-level searches as the brand established its U.S. presence.

Our recruiting support focused on identifying candidates with the right combination of experience, leadership capability, and alignment with the organization’s goals.

For the Head of Food search in particular, EH focused on reaching a highly targeted talent pool and identifying an A+ candidate despite the challenges associated with the brand’s limited local awareness and the specialized nature of the role.

Over the course of the partnership, EH has successfully placed:

• People & Training Manager
• Head of Food
• Kitchen Manager
• Restaurant General Manager
• U.S. Head of Operations

Measurable Outcomes: Five Leadership Placements

Since the brand entered the U.S. market in 2025, Empowered Hospitality has made five placements across key leadership and management roles.

Five Successful Placements: Filled five management and leadership-level positions supporting the organization’s U.S. operations.

Specialized Talent Acquisition: Successfully filled the highly specialized Head of Food position despite a limited talent pool and relatively low local brand awareness.

Leadership Team Development: Helped the organization build its U.S. team across People & Training, Food, Kitchen Operations, Restaurant Management, and Operations.

Ongoing Recruiting Partnership: Developed a trusted recruiting relationship that has continued across multiple searches rather than supporting a single hiring need.

Support for U.S. Expansion: Helped an international hospitality brand build the leadership infrastructure needed to establish and grow its presence in the U.S. market.

The Value of a Recruiting Partner During Expansion

Entering a new market requires more than finding candidates with the right experience. Organizations need leaders who understand the business, can adapt to a new market, and have the capabilities to help build something from the ground up.

For international hospitality brands, recruiting can be particularly challenging when local brand awareness is still developing and highly specialized positions require a narrow talent pool.

Empowered Hospitality’s partnership with this organization demonstrates the value of having a recruiting partner that understands the hospitality industry and can support hiring needs as they evolve.

What began with individual searches has developed into an ongoing recruiting partnership, with EH continuing to support the organization’s leadership hiring as it expands its U.S. presence.

Five successful placements later, the partnership has helped the organization build key leadership capabilities across its growing U.S. operation.

At Empowered Hospitality, we provide hospitality-focused recruiting and talent acquisition support for organizations looking to build strong teams at every stage of growth. Whether you’re entering a new market, opening a new location, replacing a key leader, or building out your leadership team, our recruiting team can help identify and attract the talent your organization needs to grow.