The move comes after the promotion of Daniel Bunce to international COO
Sophia Dimen has been appointed managing director of German Doner Kebab‘s UK business. Sophia brings a wealth of experience as the founder of Basepoint Consulting and former senior consultant at law firm OXYGY, a role which saw her work with a host of high street food giants including Greggs, Pret A Manger and Wagamama.
Her work saw her improve the franchisor-franchisee relationship with these brands through changing behaviours and processes, as well as auditing departments and increasing profitability from businesses, such as multinational PLCs to private equity and founder start-ups.
With former UK MD, Daniel Bunce, being promoted to global COO, Sophia’s appointment comes at an exciting time for the company. 2021 saw GDK open 39 new UK restaurants and a further 78 are planned for this year. This comes on the back of a 75 per cent increase in UK sales and a 27 per cent increase in same-store sales in the last 12 months.
Sofia is keen to carry on this momentum. She said: “I am excited to be joining German Doner Kebab and stepping into the role of MD, GDK has undergone monumental growth in the UK over the past year and I am looking forward to developing our growth plans and bringing our fresh and exciting offering to the Gen Z and millennial audience throughout the UK.”
Imran Sayeed, international CEO of the German Doner Kebab Group, welcomed Sofia.
He said: “Sofia brings new expertise and talent to our leadership team and we are thrilled to welcome her into the GDK family as we build our brand awareness and bring an offering that is truly connecting with the Gen Z and millennial audience.
“I fully expect Sofia to not only be influential in helping us meet our ambitions of opening 78 restaurants in 2022, but truly driving the growth of our footprint in the next few years as we aim to reach 350 stores. We are growing at a great pace and in her new role, Sofia will also be leveraging her significant experience to support operations, marketing and developing franchise business relationships.”