78 | Tees Business
Leading ladies – Becky Norman (right)
and Shirley Moss are helping to drive
Racz Group, based at Wynyard Park.
PEOPLE
POWER
How staff are
driving one of
the UK’s largest
franchise groups
from its Tees HQ
WORDS: JOANNE BARRETT
PICTURES: TOM BANKS
W
hen you walk into the unassuming
HQ of Teesside-based business
Racz Group, there’s a tangible
buzz of energy as soon as the door opens.
A friendly welcome, a make-yourself-at-
home kind of a vibe from an engaging team
who are busy running one of the largest
owners of franchised businesses in the UK.
Had a coffee from Costa lately? It is likely
to have come from a Racz-franchised store.
Tucked into a delicious Domino’s pizza?
Ditto.
Racz runs 28 Domino’s franchises, 15
Costa and 15 Anytime Fitness gyms as well
as holding business interests in Hartlepool’s
Black Olive bar and Middlesbrough digital
multimedia company Viral Effect, with a
turnover in excess of £30m.
The scale of the company is impressive
– it employs more than 1,000 – but it
has people at its heart. And the Racz
management team, who are based in
offices at Wynyard, are testament to that.
Many of them started out making the
coffees and baking the pizzas, just like
company owner Mike Racz. But the firm’s
drive and its values, coupled with a sky’s-
the-limit career progression, has resulted in
promotion through the ranks.
It is not without hard work, of course, but
no two days are the same at Racz and that’s
what makes it an exciting place to be.
Just ask Shirley Moss, operations
manager of the Costa business, and Becky
Norman, who is executive assistant to chief
operating officer Laura Tarran.
Shirley, 29, who hails from South Africa,
and Hartlepool-born-and-bred Becky, 24,
both started out on the shop floor, so to
speak, Shirley as a Costa barista and Becky
as a delivery driver at the Hartlepool branch
of Domino’s.
Neither knew just how far their careers
would take them but they both agree