Brands hire me to exist somewhere they don’t yet.
I opened North America for Dove Spa from a blank page, opened Canada for Wilkinson Sword when they had no customers here at all, and took Godiva Canada from zero to $10M. I built a complete franchise system for a founder-led restaurant group, and have run a franchise practice for six years since. Then thirteen brands of my own, with my own money.
Markets opened. Brands led. Still building.
The strategy is fine. Nobody has built the thing.
Market entry decks, franchise feasibility studies and launch plans are not in short supply. What is missing is the person who has stood in an empty unit in a country they don’t live in and made it open on time. I have done that for a $300M Fortune 500 brand, for a global consumer giant starting from a blank page, and for a founder who handed me the keys and said build it. The gap is never the idea. It is the two hundred operational decisions between the idea and the doors opening.
What usually goes wrong
- A brand that works at home, translated badly into a new market
- The wrong partner model — franchise where a licence fits, corporate where a JV fits
- Sites chosen on rent, not on the customer
- Franchisees recruited before there is a system for them to run
- A unit economic model that only works in the spreadsheet
- Launch teams hired three months too late
Who brings me in
- Consumer brands entering North America or Canada
- Founders with 3–20 locations who want to franchise
- PE operating partners with a multi-unit portfolio company that has stalled
- Franchisors structuring a master or country deal
- Corporates launching a new brand or format from zero
- Boards who need someone who has done it, not advised on it
Three engagements. One skill.
Every engagement opens with a paid diagnostic — two to four weeks, on the ground, ending in a decision-ready plan you own whether or not we go further. From there it scopes into a project with a fixed fee and a date, not a retainer that bills by the day.
Bring the brand into North America
You have a brand that works somewhere else. Now it has to work here — which is not the same brand, the same partner model, or the same customer. I decide what it becomes in this market, choose how it enters, and open it. I have done this three times from a standing start.
What gets built
- Market positioning and the brand as it will exist here
- Entry model — corporate, franchise, licence or JV, and why
- Partner identification, structuring and negotiation
- Site strategy and selection criteria
- Store or format design brief
- Launch operations, hiring and the first-year plan
Where this comes from
- Dove Spa North America — Unilever handed me a blank page and I built the brand in market
- Wilkinson Sword Canada — hired to open the market. They had no customers here before I started.
- Godiva Canada — launch to $10M
- Godiva global retail — JVs, licensees, franchisees and corporate stores across four continents, 400+ points of distribution
Make it something a stranger can run
You have a business that works because you are in it. Franchising means it has to work when you are not — run by someone you have never met, in a town you have never visited. That is a system, and most brands try to recruit franchisees before they have built one. This is not a sideline: FC & Co has been my franchise consulting practice for over six years.
What gets built
- The replicable format — store design, footprint, build spec
- Unit economics that survive contact with a real operator
- Site selection criteria a franchisee can apply
- Operations manuals and brand standards
- Franchisee recruitment, qualification and onboarding
- Training programme and field support model
Where this comes from
- FC & Co — six-plus years advising franchise operators on systems and growth
- Judge, Elite Franchise 100, and a contributing writer in their magazine
- Sunnyside Grill — the complete franchise system from scratch: store design, branding, site selection, recruitment, training and operations
- Firkin Pubs · Godiva’s global licensee and franchisee network
Blank page to trading business
There is no brand yet. There is an idea, a budget and a board date. This is the one most consultants cannot do, because it is not analysis — it is two hundred decisions made in the right order, most of them under time pressure, none of them reversible for long.
What gets built
- Brand definition, name, identity and customer
- Format and physical design
- Site search and negotiation
- Build programme and supplier base
- Hiring the launch team
- Operations, systems and the opening itself
Where this comes from
- Dove Spa North America, from zero
- Clarity Centre — award-winning centre built from nothing: 50 teachers, 100+ classes a week
- The Mastermind City — thousands of entrepreneurs trained globally
- Nine more brands built since, all in the last five years
Thirteen brands. Not one of them a deck.
Most people who sell market entry have advised on it. Fay has done it inside a Fortune 500 with a $300M P&L, done it for two global consumer brands starting from nothing, done it for a founder who handed over the keys — and then done it again and again with her own money, which is a materially different way to learn.
Built inside big business
- Godiva Chocolatier — Director, Global Retail. Built the international retail network: JVs, licensees, franchisees and corporate stores across four continents. $300M brand, 400+ points of distribution.
- Godiva Canada — market launch, 0→$10M.
- Dove Spa North America (Unilever Ventures) — Managing Director. Created the entire brand in market: definition, store design, site selection, hiring, launch.
- Wilkinson Sword Canada — hired to open the market. No customers here before she started.
- Sunnyside Grill — Brand & Franchise Development. The complete franchise system, from a blank page. Ongoing.
Built from nothing
- Blue Avalon — a global subscription newsletter with thousands of subscribers worldwide, built and run for six years alongside the corporate job.
- Clarity Centre (2011) — award-winning wellness centre built from zero: 50 teachers, 100+ classes a week, plus a registered yoga school with its own curriculum and certification. Opened while she was a full-time caregiver.
- The Mastermind City — entrepreneurial hub that trained thousands of entrepreneurs around the world.
- FC & Co — her franchise consulting practice, six-plus years.
- Nine brands since — media, membership, software, live events, physical product. Every one started in the last five years.
Judge, Elite Franchise 100 — and a contributing writer in their magazine. Ivey MBA. Entrepreneur of the Year. Author of Nothing You Survive Is Wasted.
One build engagement at a time. When Fay takes a project she is on the ground in it, which is the whole point — and the reason there is a waiting list rather than a roster.
The Long Game at Work™ — and the keynotes.
The other half of the practice, for a different buyer. Building a brand and rebuilding a workforce turn out to be the same discipline — taking something written off and making it work again. Companies bring Fay in for this when their most experienced people start going quiet.
What it is
- Keynote — 45–90 minutes. Six talks, each aimed at a line someone is already measured on: senior retention, AI adoption, caregiver attrition, burnout, manager capability.
- Half-day workshop — on site, for a leadership team or a manager cohort.
- 90-day cohort — Signal, Strengthen, Rebuild, Rise. With The Long Game app as the daily-practice layer.
Who buys it
- CHROs and People leaders
- Benefits and total rewards
- L&D and transformation
- ERGs and women’s leadership programmes
- Conference and summit organisers
Tell me what you’re trying to open.
A market you are not in yet, a business you want franchised, or a brand that does not exist. Send the situation and the date you are working toward. You will get an honest read within two business days — including whether I am the right person, what the diagnostic would cover, and what it costs.
What to include
- The brand or business, and where it is today
- The market or model you are trying to reach
- The date or board deadline driving it
- Who is in the room — founder, board, PE, corporate parent
- What has already been tried, if anything
How it starts
- A call — 30 minutes, no deck
- A paid diagnostic, two to four weeks, on the ground
- A decision-ready plan you own either way
- If it fits, a scoped build with a fixed fee and a date
- One build engagement at a time
Direct: fay@faychapple.com
