News

Tin Drum Asian Kitchen hires development experts for growth strategy

October 30, 2019

Tin Drum Asian Kitchen is hiring a team of operation and business development experts in a quest to drive growth as well as streamline processes. The leaders for the Atlanta-based fast casual will also support potential and current franchisees, according to a press release. The news comes on the heels of the brand signing a five-unit deal for Houston, Texas, and plans to open a restaurant in the Savannah, Georgia, area this year.

The new hires are:

• James Tipton as senior operations manager. Prior to joining Tin Drum, Tipton was an operating partner with P.F. Chang's Bistro, where he managed operations, human resources and analytics and metrics for the restaurant.  In his new role Tipton will be responsible for building operational systems as well as franchise support.
• Tony Flannigan as operations manager. Flannigan has worked for Tin Drum for three years and was promoted to operations manager. He has 15 years of experience and started his career with Tin Drum as manager of the Newnan, Ga., restaurant and then moved to the corporate operations.  In his new role Flannigan will be implementing all operational systems across the brand with field improvement feedback loop to the company.
• John Vey as operations support specialist. Vey is a former multi-unit general manager for Tin Drum and has returned to the company to focus on enhancing and enforcing culinary operational excellence. He joins from P.F. Chang's, where he worked under Tipton, and led the company's Certified Training Team. Vey brings over 10 years of hands-on culinary experience.
• Erika Lewis as development associate. Lewis has spent her career in the design and construction business, most recently working for Tin Drum's sister brand Tropical Smoothie Cafe. There she worked to support new franchise partners on everything from branding, marketing and real estate development. She will be the key figure in the pre-opening processes, facility compliance, and built environment research and development.

 "The next year is going to be a busy one for Tin Drum as we execute our expansion plans beyond Georgia," CEO Steven Chan said in the release. "It's important that we have the right team in place to handle operations and development and we now have an experienced group of leaders well-positioned to do the job."