Quick-Service Restaurants, Casual Dining, Cloud Kitchens & Food-Service Leadership
QSR & Food Service
Executive Search
45+ QSR & Food Service Placements — with an average 78 Days time-to-placement and a 12-month candidate guarantee.
45+
QSR & Food Service Placements
78 Days
Avg. Time-to-Placement
91%
Offer Acceptance Rate
12 Months
Candidate Guarantee
Specialisation withinConsumer, Retail & FMCG·Building Brands, Winning Consumers
QSR (Quick-Service Restaurants) and Food Service is the organised-food-service tranche of India's consumer market — the category that combines menu-and-brand architecture, store-operations-and-unit-economics, supply-chain-and-commissary discipline, and franchise-or-company-owned multi-unit rhythm. The ecosystem spans listed and privately-held QSR operators (the listed Indian master-franchisee operator of a global pizza QSR brand across India and Nepal along with coffee-chain and chicken-QSR global-brand licences; listed Indian master-franchisee operators of global chicken-QSR, pizza-QSR, and global coffee-chain brands; the listed Indian master-franchisee operator of a global burger-QSR brand; the listed Indian master-franchisee operator of a global burger-QSR brand across India's west and south; legacy regional master-franchisee operators of a global burger-QSR brand across north-and-east India; the listed Indian multi-cuisine casual-dining chain; listed Indian multi-cuisine casual-dining operators across Indo-Chinese, Indian regional, and contemporary formats; privately-held and PE-backed multi-concept casual-dining operators; premium-coffee-and-chai-chain operators; listed and privately-held Indian sweets-namkeen-and-regional-food-service operators; the global coffee-chain India joint-venture of a listed Indian conglomerate), cloud-kitchen operators (PE-backed multi-brand cloud-kitchen operators running 15+ cloud brands across 400+ kitchens; PE-backed multi-brand cloud-kitchen operators running healthy-and-indulgence brands; fresh-meal and biryani cloud-kitchen specialists; legacy food-aggregator-operated cloud-kitchen chains), multi-cuisine casual-dining operators (listed Indian barbecue-casual-dining chains, listed Indian multi-cuisine casual-dining operators, and privately-held casual-dining chains across Indo-Chinese, Indian regional, and contemporary formats), premium-and-fine-dining operators (listed and privately-held premium and fine-dining chefs and restaurant groups across contemporary-Indian, modern-European, Japanese, and Italian fine-dining formats), cafe-and-coffee-chain operators (the global coffee-chain India joint-venture, listed master-franchisee operators of global coffee-chain brands, legacy listed Indian coffee-chain operators, privately-held premium-specialty-coffee chains, and chai-chain operators), and food-service-and-institutional operators (global institutional-catering MNC India operators, the listed airline-catering JV of a listed Indian hospitality group, and listed Indian sweets-and-namkeen-and-regional-food-service operators). Leadership here requires fluency in menu-and-brand-architecture design, store-operations-and-unit-economics discipline, commissary-and-cold-chain supply-architecture, franchise-or-company-owned multi-unit stewardship, and the specific FSSAI-and-food-safety-and-labour-compliance rhythm.
Is This Your Situation?
If any of these sound familiar, you're speaking to the right practice.
→Listed QSR major running MD succession — confidential search with promoter-and-franchise-principal and nomination-committee alignment across QSR operating credibility, franchise stewardship, and listed-group governance.
→Multi-brand casual-dining operator running CEO succession — search across multi-brand portfolio stewardship and SSSG-and-new-store-opening discipline.
→Cloud-kitchen operator scaling to 500+ kitchens hiring a Head of Operations with cloud-kitchen unit-economics credibility and multi-brand-and-multi-kitchen operations stewardship.
→Premium-cafe-chain running Head of Brand succession — search across cafe-brand-DNA stewardship and menu-and-coffee-craft architecture discipline.
Our QSR & Food Service Track Record
Situation:
A listed QSR major scaling to 1,500+ stores needed Head of Operations succession. The brief required QSR operations credibility, multi-unit stewardship across 1,000+ stores, new-store-opening-and-cluster-expansion discipline, and the specific SSSG-and-store-P&L management architecture.
Outcome:
Placed a Head of Operations with prior Head of Operations tenure at a peer listed QSR operator and subsequent regional-president tenure at a global QSR franchise. The operator's new-store-opening cadence accelerated and SSSG improved materially within 18 months.
Situation:
A PE-backed multi-brand cloud-kitchen scale-up preparing for an IPO within 24 months needed CEO succession. The brief required cloud-kitchen unit-economics credibility, multi-brand-and-multi-kitchen operations stewardship, delivery-aggregator architecture fluency, and the specific PE-investor-communication and IPO-readiness rhythm.
Outcome:
Placed a CEO with prior president tenure at a listed QSR major and subsequent CEO tenure at a PE-backed multi-brand food-service group. The scale-up's unit-economics and brand-portfolio rationalisation progressed materially within 12 months, supporting the IPO timeline.
All client details anonymised. Specific mandates available for reference under NDA upon request.
Our QSR & Food Service Practice
QSR (Quick-Service Restaurants) and Food Service is the organised-food-service tranche of India's consumer market — the category that combines menu-and-brand architecture, store-operations-and-unit-economics, supply-chain-and-commissary discipline, and franchise-or-company-owned multi-unit rhythm. The ecosystem spans listed and privately-held QSR operators (the listed Indian master-franchisee operator of a global pizza QSR brand across India and Nepal along with coffee-chain and chicken-QSR global-brand licences; listed Indian master-franchisee operators of global chicken-QSR, pizza-QSR, and global coffee-chain brands; the listed Indian master-franchisee operator of a global burger-QSR brand; the listed Indian master-franchisee operator of a global burger-QSR brand across India's west and south; legacy regional master-franchisee operators of a global burger-QSR brand across north-and-east India; the listed Indian multi-cuisine casual-dining chain; listed Indian multi-cuisine casual-dining operators across Indo-Chinese, Indian regional, and contemporary formats; privately-held and PE-backed multi-concept casual-dining operators; premium-coffee-and-chai-chain operators; listed and privately-held Indian sweets-namkeen-and-regional-food-service operators; the global coffee-chain India joint-venture of a listed Indian conglomerate), cloud-kitchen operators (PE-backed multi-brand cloud-kitchen operators running 15+ cloud brands across 400+ kitchens; PE-backed multi-brand cloud-kitchen operators running healthy-and-indulgence brands; fresh-meal and biryani cloud-kitchen specialists; legacy food-aggregator-operated cloud-kitchen chains), multi-cuisine casual-dining operators (listed Indian barbecue-casual-dining chains, listed Indian multi-cuisine casual-dining operators, and privately-held casual-dining chains across Indo-Chinese, Indian regional, and contemporary formats), premium-and-fine-dining operators (listed and privately-held premium and fine-dining chefs and restaurant groups across contemporary-Indian, modern-European, Japanese, and Italian fine-dining formats), cafe-and-coffee-chain operators (the global coffee-chain India joint-venture, listed master-franchisee operators of global coffee-chain brands, legacy listed Indian coffee-chain operators, privately-held premium-specialty-coffee chains, and chai-chain operators), and food-service-and-institutional operators (global institutional-catering MNC India operators, the listed airline-catering JV of a listed Indian hospitality group, and listed Indian sweets-and-namkeen-and-regional-food-service operators). Leadership here requires fluency in menu-and-brand-architecture design, store-operations-and-unit-economics discipline, commissary-and-cold-chain supply-architecture, franchise-or-company-owned multi-unit stewardship, and the specific FSSAI-and-food-safety-and-labour-compliance rhythm.
We place leaders across listed QSR operators, privately-held and PE-backed casual-dining operators, cloud-kitchen operators, cafe-and-coffee-chain operators, and food-service-and-institutional operators. Engagements include CEO / MD searches for listed QSR majors, Head of Brand / Head of Menu-and-Innovation placements, Head of Operations / COO placements, Head of Supply Chain / Head of Commissary placements, CMO and Head of Loyalty-and-Delivery placements, Head of Franchise / Head of New-Market-Development placements, and CFO placements with QSR-accounting credibility. Every mandate is retained and closed-network.
As a specialist CEO mandates in listed QSR, our practice also covers COO placements in multi-unit food-service, our practice also covers Consumer, Retail & FMCG practice overview, and as a source for Consumer — food & beverages.
The QSR & Food Service Landscape Today
India's Organised Food Service market has crossed ₹5.5-6 lakh crore with the organised QSR-and-chain-restaurant tranche at approximately ₹55,000-60,000 crore (about 10% of total food-service) — growing at 16-20% annually with QSR, cloud-kitchens, cafe-and-coffee-chains, and casual-dining expansion driving the growth. The listed Indian master-franchisee operator of a global pizza QSR brand (2,000+ stores — the single-largest QSR operator in India, along with its coffee-chain, chicken-QSR, and in-house Chinese-QSR formats) is the largest listed QSR operator. The listed Indian master-franchisee operators of the global chicken-QSR brand (650+ stores together across east, north, west, and south India) and of the global pizza-QSR-and-coffee-chain system together operate the global chicken-QSR-and-pizza-QSR India franchise system. The listed Indian master-franchisee operator of a global burger-QSR brand (400+ stores) operates that global burger-QSR India franchise. The listed Indian master-franchisee operator of another global burger-QSR brand (across India's west and south — 350+ stores) operates that global burger-QSR India franchise (post regional master-franchise consolidation, the north-and-east India master-franchise is also under restructuring). The listed Indian barbecue-casual-dining chain is the largest listed casual-dining operator. The global coffee-chain India joint-venture of a listed Indian conglomerate (350+ stores) leads the premium-cafe-chain tranche. The cloud-kitchen tranche has scaled materially — PE-backed multi-brand cloud-kitchen operators (15+ cloud-brands across 400+ kitchens and 12+ cloud-brands across healthy-and-indulgence categories), fresh-meal-and-biryani cloud-kitchen specialists, and legacy direct-to-consumer cloud-kitchen operators together operate the largest cloud-kitchen footprint. Premium-specialty-coffee and chai-chain operators lead the premium-coffee-chain and chai-chain tranches. The listed Indian food-and-lifestyle aggregator and the PE-and-global-investor-backed food-and-quick-commerce aggregator together account for the majority of India's online-food-delivery volume (₹50,000+ crore GMV), with delivery-share-of-QSR revenue crossing 35-50% for some operators. Franchise-vs-company-owned architecture, royalty-and-brand-fee economics, same-store-sales-growth (SSSG) management, and commissary-and-cold-chain supply architecture are the defining operating disciplines. FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) governs food-safety compliance; the FSS (Licensing and Registration) Regulations 2011, Food-Safety-Training-and-Certification (FoSTaC) programme, and Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) industry architecture are operationally relevant. State-specific excise licensing applies to alcoholic beverages in dining operators. The Commercial Establishments Acts, Factories Act (for commissaries), and the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act apply to multi-unit QSR operators. Leadership in the sub-sector requires fluency in menu-and-brand-architecture design, store-operations-and-unit-economics discipline, commissary-and-cold-chain supply-architecture, franchise-or-company-owned multi-unit stewardship, and FSSAI-and-food-safety-and-labour-compliance rhythm. Compensation is at QSR-and-hospitality-market-median with SSSG-and-new-store-opening-linked performance architecture.
Key Leadership Challenges in QSR & Food Service
CEO / MD succession for listed QSR majors — leaders with QSR-or-casual-dining operating credibility, franchise-or-master-franchise stewardship, store-operations-and-SSSG discipline, menu-and-brand-architecture design, and the governance rhythm of listed QSR groups.
Head of Brand / Head of Menu-and-Innovation placements — multi-brand operators need Brand Heads with menu-architecture-and-innovation credibility, brand-DNA stewardship, and the specific QSR-brand-equity-and-LTO (Limited Time Offer) rhythm.
Head of Operations / COO placements — multi-unit QSR operators need Operations Heads with store-operations-and-unit-economics credibility, multi-unit stewardship across 500-2000+ stores, and the specific new-store-opening-and-cluster-expansion architecture.
Head of Supply Chain / Head of Commissary placements — QSR operators need Supply-Chain Heads with commissary-and-cold-chain architecture credibility, multi-temperature-and-multi-category fulfilment discipline, and the specific food-safety-and-procurement rhythm.
CMO / Head of Loyalty-and-Delivery placements — QSR operators need Marketing Heads with menu-marketing-and-LTO credibility, delivery-and-aggregator architecture fluency, loyalty-programme-and-CRM stewardship, and the specific QSR-brand-building rhythm.
Head of Franchise / Head of New-Market-Development placements — franchise-heavy QSR operators need Franchise Heads with master-franchise-and-sub-franchise architecture credibility and the specific new-market-entry-and-cluster-development rhythm.
What We Look For in QSR & Food Service Leaders
Across mandates, qsr & food service leadership tends to cluster into a small set of archetypes. We calibrate each search against the profile your board actually needs — not the one most commonly available.
The Listed QSR MD / President
Executive who has run a listed QSR major or multi-brand food-service group — fluent in QSR-or-casual-dining operating credibility, franchise-or-master-franchise stewardship, store-operations-and-SSSG discipline, menu-and-brand-architecture design, and the governance rhythm of listed QSR groups.
The Head of Brand / Menu-and-Innovation
Brand leader with menu-architecture-and-innovation credibility, brand-DNA stewardship, LTO-and-new-product-development discipline, and the specific QSR-brand-equity rhythm. Often a career QSR-brand operator with subsequent Head of Brand leadership.
The QSR COO / Head of Operations
Operations leader with store-operations-and-unit-economics credibility, multi-unit stewardship across 500-2000+ stores, new-store-opening-and-cluster-expansion discipline, and the specific QSR operations rhythm.
The QSR Head of Supply Chain / Commissary
Supply-chain leader with commissary-and-cold-chain architecture credibility, multi-temperature-and-multi-category fulfilment discipline, food-safety-and-procurement stewardship, and the specific QSR-supply-chain rhythm.
The QSR CMO / Head of Loyalty-and-Delivery
Marketing leader with menu-marketing-and-LTO credibility, delivery-and-aggregator architecture fluency, loyalty-programme-and-CRM stewardship, and the specific QSR-brand-building rhythm.
The Head of Franchise / New-Market-Development
Expansion leader with master-franchise-and-sub-franchise architecture credibility, new-market-entry-and-cluster-development discipline, franchise-economics-and-site-selection stewardship, and the specific QSR-expansion rhythm.
Regulatory & Compensation Context
Regulatory Backdrop
QSR and food-service operations sit at the intersection of FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India), state-specific shops-and-establishments Acts, state-specific excise licensing for alcoholic-beverages-in-dining, the Factories Act 1948 (for commissaries and central kitchens), the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970, the Commercial Establishments Acts, and the Employees State Insurance Act 1948 / EPF Act 1952 for multi-unit labour compliance. The FSS (Licensing and Registration) Regulations 2011 require FSSAI licence for every food-business-operator (FBO); the FSS (Food Safety Auditing) Regulations 2018 and FoSTaC (Food-Safety-Training-and-Certification) programme govern training-and-audit-compliance architecture. Central-kitchen-and-commissary operations require additional Factory Licence (under the Factories Act) and labour-compliance architecture. State-specific FL-3 / FL-4 liquor-licences (Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Goa architecture varies) apply to dining operators. Aggregator-and-delivery operations (the listed food-and-quick-commerce aggregators) are governed by the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules 2020. The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011 apply to packaged-food-sold-in-QSR. GST on restaurant-and-food-service is 5% (without ITC) or 18% (with ITC, for specified categories). Municipal-and-fire-safety compliance architecture (state-specific) applies to every restaurant unit. Franchise-agreement-and-master-franchise architecture is governed by the Indian Contract Act 1872 and the Trade Marks Act 1999.
Compensation Architecture
QSR and food-service leadership compensation sits at QSR-and-hospitality-market-median with SSSG-and-new-store-opening-linked performance architecture. Listed QSR MD compensation ranges ₹6-18 crore fixed with multi-year ESOP / PSU architectures; Head of Operations for a 500+ store QSR operator ranges ₹3-7 crore; Head of Supply Chain / Commissary ranges ₹2.5-6 crore; CMO for a listed QSR major ranges ₹2.5-6 crore; Head of Franchise / New-Market-Development ranges ₹2-5 crore. Cloud-kitchen scale-ups frequently include founder-type equity architectures with ₹1.5-4 crore cash compensation.
Roles We Typically Place
Why Gladwin International Leadership Advisors for QSR & Food Service
CEO / MD searches for listed QSR majors and multi-brand food-service operators.
Head of Brand / Head of Menu-and-Innovation / Head of Product-Development placements.
Head of Operations / COO / Head of Store-Operations placements.
Head of Supply Chain / Head of Commissary / Head of Procurement placements.
CMO / Head of Loyalty-and-Delivery / Head of Aggregator-Commerce placements.
Head of Franchise / Head of New-Market-Development / Head of Expansion placements.
CFO and Head of IR placements with QSR-accounting credibility.
Organisations We Serve
Listed QSR operators (listed Indian master-franchisee operators of global pizza-QSR, chicken-QSR, burger-QSR, and coffee-chain brands)
Listed casual-dining operators (listed Indian barbecue-casual-dining chains and listed Indian multi-cuisine casual-dining operators)
Privately-held and PE-backed multi-brand casual-dining operators (privately-held and PE-backed contemporary-Indian, Indo-Chinese, and European casual-dining operators)
Cafe-and-coffee-chain operators (the global coffee-chain India joint-venture, listed master-franchisee operators of global coffee-chain brands, legacy listed Indian coffee-chain operators, premium-specialty-coffee chains, and chai-chain operators)
Cloud-kitchen operators (PE-backed multi-brand cloud-kitchen operators across 15+-brand portfolios, healthy-and-indulgence portfolios, fresh-meal-and-biryani specialists, and direct-to-consumer cloud-kitchen platforms)
Premium-and-fine-dining operators (privately-held premium and fine-dining chefs and restaurant groups across contemporary-Indian, modern-European, and premium multi-format dining)
Food-service-and-institutional operators (global institutional-catering MNC India operators and the listed airline-catering JV of a listed Indian hospitality group)
Indian sweets-and-namkeen-and-regional-food-service operators (listed and privately-held Indian sweets-and-namkeen majors, regional packaged-food-service operators, and fast-casual regional-cuisine chains)
QSR & Food Service leaders assessed on the Consumer & Retail “CATALYST” framework
Seven dimensions calibrated for consumer, retail, and FMCG leadership. Dimensions are calibrated for qsr & food service mandates where relevant.
Parent Practice
Return to Consumer, Retail & FMCG
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