Muffin Break - Most Innovative Woman of the Year - Franchising

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2021, Click to Enter The 2022 STevie Awards for Women in Business

Company: Muffin Break, Sydney, Australia
Company Description: Muffin Break first opened its doors in Queensland in 1989. In 2021, with over 200 stores in Australia, all stores are locally owned & operated by our franchise partners who are proud of the communities they serve and the products they offer. Muffin Break are firm believers that ‘Good Goes In’. Everything from good coffee, good community & good partnerships to add a bit of good to people's everyday
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Woman of the Year - Franchising

Nomination Title: Natalie Brennan

Beginning 20 years ago as an operations consultant, Natalie Brennan worked her way up within the Foodco Group (Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue franchisor). Today, Natalie is the General Manager of Muffin Break, a mum of two and has successfully guided 200+ stores Australia wide to profitability and success.

As GM, Natalie takes full responsibility for setting profitable strategies and fostering a positive and efficient organisational culture.

Natalie’s core focus has always been to lead innovation, especially within training and sustainability, which has had a direct impact on increased sales, brand ethos and franchise recognition.

Guided by Natalie’s dedication and passion, Muffin Break:

  • Introduced digital innovation within the training realm, specifically with Virtual Reality, gamification, QR codes and holograms.
  • Partnered with Simply Cups in 2018. For every takeaway cup sold in Muffin Break, one is diverted from landfill to be upcycled. Muffin Break actively lobbies shopping centres for engagement/uptake in the program.
  • Continuously establishes sustainable initiatives such as removing single-use plastics (straws, stirrers, bags), transitioning coffee lids from black to white to ensure successful recycling and introducing single-walled Callisto cups.

With Natalie’s guidance, Muffin Break has won several awards for innovation in training and sustainability, including:

  • October 2019: FCA’s Winner of Socially ResponsibleFranchisor
  • August 2019: Ranked #8 Most Sustainable Company by TheAustralian Financial Review
  • June 2019: QSR: Winner of Best Sustainability Initiative
  • July 2020: Winner of Gold Asia-Pacific Stevie Awardfor Innovation in Sustainability
  • August 2020: Ranked #5 Most Innovative Company by The Australian Financial Review for the brand’s innovative training techniques.
  • June 2021: Winner of Silver Asia-Pacific Stevie Awardfor Innovation in Living, Learning, and Working Environments for artificial intelligence in training.

From a sustainability standpoint, Natalie’s direction on introducing the single-walled Callisto cup has achieved a reduction of more than 35 tonnes of paper/year going to landfill. As these Australian-made cups weigh less, this will also reduce the transport emissions compared to the previous design.

Additionally, as one of Simply Cups earliest partners, Muffin Break actively lobbied shopping centres for engagement and the introduction of Simply Cups collection units. In 2021, with Muffin Break assistance, Simply Cups have saved over 18 million cups from landfill and service 33 shopping centres and counting.

This ongoing support, guidance and training has led Muffin Break to win the 2020 Roy Morgan Coffee Shop of the year award.

Finally, on a personal level, Natalie has won several awards, including most recently:

  • 2020:Global Top 100 Most Influential Women in Franchising (Business Women)
  • 2019: Ranked no.1:Top 30 Franchise Executives (Inside Franchise Business)

Each of these achievements are both unique and significant for the following reasons:

  • Being honoured with awards for training and sustainability has allowed us to be recognised by both industry bodies and our customers as trailblazers in those categories.
  • Being awarded the Roy Morgan Coffee Shop of the Year 2020 (as well as 2016 & 2017) reflects the hard work the brand puts into staff training, plus the quality of products and focus on customer service under Natalie’s leadership. Additionally, it has shown how the brand and its franchise partners have constantly adapted to the ever-changing climate and customer shopping habits, whilst lifting the standards and influencing the benchmark for the sector.
  • With a significant increase in takeaway cups over the past 10 years, especially during the COVID19 pandemic, the sustainability initiatives and partnership with Simply Cups forged by Natalie, allowed the brand to reduce its impact on the environment and provide an ethical alternative for customers.
  • Where takeaway cups would otherwise have gone to landfill, by partnering with Simply Cups, together, Muffin Break is assisting in pioneering a circular economy by upcycling disposable cups into new and useful products, such as roadside kerbing, outdoor furniture and the innovative technology of recycled road surfacing made with plastic packaging. Muffin Break were early adopters and promoters of Simply Cups, assisting their now widespread reach.

Reference any attachments of supporting materials

To further support this nomination, varying articles, blog posts, screenshots, photos and documents have been provided to identify the awards and achievements Muffin Break has accomplished under the guidance of Natalie Brennan.
Blog posts: including information surrounding the brands sustainability initiatives, awards and community achievements and fundraising for charities.
Articles: including articles written on or featuring Natalie Brennan and her prior achievements.
Screenshots, photos & documents: outlining & giving a closer look into Muffin Break’s training initiatives & sustainability initiatives