Wanda Williams
Just a few months into her tenure at Nothing Bundt Cakes, Chief Operating Officer Wanda Williams has her eyes on the future.
Williams joined Nothing Bundt Cakes in August, where she oversees teams responsible for operations, learning and development, training and HR.
“I am proudly prepared to jump in and do what I can to support the brand and help them drive their growth engine,” she said.
The company is growing at the fastest rate in its 27-year history, with nearly 640 bakeries operating throughout the United States and Canada. About 96 percent of units are franchised, Williams said. Nothing Bundt Cakes is working to accelerate its growth as it pushes toward the goal of opening its 1,000th location by 2027.
To stay on track, Williams said the company is working with existing bakery owners to identify new growth opportunities within their markets. Nothing Bundt Cakes is also reaching out to prospective buyers to understand their interest and get them signed on to fill in some white space nationwide.
“We are proud to have the men and women who are in our bakery owner system to really carry the brand forward,” Williams said. “They take so much pride at a bakery-to-bakery level to serve our guests, and they’re the ones on the front line with our team members.”
Williams’ experience in franchise operations lends itself to tackling this goal. She spent nearly four years as head of global franchising at Yum Brands, and prior to that was vice president of operations at Pizza Hut. She held leadership roles at HBO and Waste Management earlier in her career.
“The ability to leverage that experience will really help us at Nothing Bundt Cakes, along with our leadership team, to propel the brand forward and really drive profitable growth,” she said.
Within the operations team, Williams highlighted three focus areas. The first is strategizing how to drive continuing operations improvements with front-of-house and back-of-house operations as well as the company’s multiple delivery channels.
Williams is also focused on providing a consistent, reliable guest experience and a collaborative, high-performing system that continues to generate growth, which she simply describes as “exciting.”
“As we are growing, we need to make sure that we continue to have a very open and collaborative, passionate franchise system that is high-performing,” she said. “Only together with our bakery owners can we really drive profitable growth.”