Staffing

BurgerFi snags former Panera Operations vet

February 22, 2021

BurgerFi International Inc. has hired QSR-industry veteran Jim Esposito as COO. Esposito's experience includes positions at Panera Bread Company, Papa Gino's Inc. and Burger King Corporation and Planet Fitness.

"Jim Esposito built his career around successfully managing people and processes for high-quality organizations in very competitive and fast-paced environments, and has achieved tremendous success," Ophir Sternberg, BurgerFi executive chairman said in a company press release. "Esposito's industry experience and positive track record with food-centric and publicly traded companies made him an exceptional candidate as COO."

Most recently as SVP of Operations for Planet Fitness, Esposito grew market share and revenue at the 105 company-owned locations globally. He drove revenue up by 15.2% to $159.7 million and EBITDA up by 15.7% to $65.6 million in 2019. In his role he coached, trained and mentored a team of 1,400 employees through leading and influencing, improving employee satisfaction, and dramatically reducing turnover. He spearheaded leadership of global operations; transformed $60 million dollars in annual real estate development, optimized $150 million dollars in revenue and ignited $80 million dollars in bottom-line profits.

"Jim Esposito has a strong record of delivering rapid business results while positioning franchised and corporate-owned businesses to greater levels of profitability and operational efficiencies," Julio Ramirez, CEO of BurgerFi, said in the release. "He is a dynamic change agent able to lead and manage change using innovative, out-of-the-box approaches and I am honored to have him as part of the BurgerFi family."

Prior to joining Planet Fitness, Esposito worked for Panera Bread, where he collaborated with a cross-functional team to drive business results, improve drive-thru process efficiencies and introduce Panera 2.0, an integrated experience that meets the differentiated needs of to-go, dine-in, and large order delivery customers through new mechanisms for ordering, payment processing and consumer consumption.

"BurgerFi is leading the way in the 'better burger' segment. I am committed to building upon BurgerFi's dedicated employee base, great operations, and superior products to consistently deliver the best burger and overall exceptional guest experience at every franchise and company-owned restaurant, which will further fuel the 30% projected growth for 2021," Jim Esposito said in the release. "This is a brand that is built on quality at every touch point – the people, the food, the restaurants, and the best-in-class omnichannel technology platforms. I am looking forward to working with the leadership team to continue BurgerFi's acceleration as a public company."

Established in 2011, BurgerFi has nearly 125 restaurants domestically and internationally.