Serving the Teesside Business Community | 31
W ORDS : JOANNE B A RRE T T
PIC TU RES: CHRIS BO O T H
W
hen Laura Tarran was almost 16,
she was walking down York Road
in Hartlepool on the way to a
friend’s house when she spotted a “staff
wanted” ad in the window of a soon to be
opened Domino’s Pizza store.
Her mum had just told her she needed
to think about getting a part-time job to run
alongside her college studies and with that
ringing in her ears, she went inside and left
her details.
The Domino’s franchise belonged to Mike
Racz and the year was 2006. She got an
interview, got the job – and the pair are
still working together more than a decade
later. Only the business is on a much, much
bigger scale.
Cue a little bit of number crunching.
The Racz Group, which is headquartered
at Wynyard Business Park, owns 28
Domino’s franchises, 14 Costa Coffees
and 14 Anytime Fitness gym franchises,
not to mention Hartlepool Black Olive
Bar. Racz Group also has investments
in Middlesbrough in digital multi-media
company Viral Effect and employs almost
1,000 people with an annual turnover in
excess of £30m.
The group is one of the UK’s largest
owners of franchised businesses and has
a vision to become the largest company
based in the North East of England by
turnover and number of team members.
As its chief operating officer, Laura
is involved in running and managing all
aspects of the business on a day-to-day
basis. She can be working through the
logistics of opening up a brand-new site one
day to team training the next.
But she’s never forgotten how to make
a great pizza and that, she reckons, is just
one of the reasons why the group has gone
from strength to strength.
Staff on the ground know the
management team have been there and
done that, so to speak. There’s a real family
orientated philosophy and a willingness to
pull together and be the best team.
“It is a family organisation, it doesn’t
matter who you are or your size, there’s
a sense of belonging to the group,” says
Laura.
“The North East is our home and base
for our business. This is where our key
teams operate from and how we support
our businesses around the country. Any
new business opportunities are trialled and
tested from here in Teesside.
“All of my team know I’m here; they
know where to find me if they need me. We
Management – COO Laura may be in the
office these days, but she’s never forgotten
how to make a great pizza.
“The North East is our home and base for our
business...any new business opportunities are
trialled and tested from here in Teesside.”
might be working with different companies,
different brands in different parts of the
country but they are essentially all run the
same way with the same core ideology.
We know how to run businesses and that
model applies to any type of business.”
She carried on working at Domino’s for
Mike through her A Levels and university
studies but the group was growing rapidly
and she threw herself into working full-time.
“University was kind of the expected
thing you did, I went on to uni after A Levels
but I was always more interested in how
businesses were run and what made them
successful,” she says.
“I much preferred working at Domino’s,
for Mike, by then he had seven stores and I
had fallen in love with it!
“I started off making pizzas in 2006,
memorising pizza patterns and topping
codes – once you learn it you never forget.
I go into the stores now and I can still make
a pizza and I still like to think I’m really good
at it, not so great at making a flat white
though!”
“When it comes to company values, if
you criticise you have to be willing to offer
a solution, so basically it’s not a no, it’s
how do we do it? Being led by Mike always
helps, his passion and energy is as strong
now as it was 14 years ago.”
Her proudest moment at Racz Group
came last year when the company was
presented with a “Golden Franny” award
by Domino’s Pizza International at an
awards ceremony in Las Vegas. “Domino’s
franchises from all over the world were
invited and to know that Racz Group was
acknowledged as one of the best was one
of my proudest moments in the business,”
says Laura.
She enjoys visiting the stores and getting
stuck in. She wears the same uniform the
staff do – “I don’t have a management
uniform in my wardrobe!” – and has learned
every aspect of the business from the
ground up.
She admits she probably hasn’t switched
her phone off in the past eight years but
that’s kind of the way she likes it. “My mum
always taught me that you work hard for
what you want, admirably my mum worked
very hard from nothing to be the successful
woman she is today”.
When she’s not at work she’s mum to
Harry, eight, and a carer to Shelby aged 17.
She thrives on the busy lifestyle –
although she does admit she keeps the
family rota on an Excel spreadsheet and
sticks it to the fridge every week so
everyone is kept right. Her one little escape
is a horse called Murphy, which she loves
riding along the beach.
So what’s next for the company?
“Mike is always moving the goal posts –
he says there’s no end goal, the sky is the
limit,” she smiles.
“We are aiming to open more Domino’s,
Costa is growing, and we are always
looking for the next new thing.
“There isn’t anything my team can’t do,
with Mike’s ambition, the team’s desire to
be the best. My main job is to keep them
focused, interested and keep the spirit of
Racz Group glowing. For me personally,
the aim is to keep learning new business
elements and expand on my already brilliant
team.”