Shake-up as YBR moves to franchise model


Yellow Brick Road Holdings has announced to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today that it will be transitioning to a franchise model, consolidating its staff numbers and focusing on increased network productivity and adviser recruitment.
It said the move represented a follow-on from the acquisition of four businesses — Resi Mortgage Corporation, Vow Financial, Brightday and Loane Avenue, and a three-year $20 million brand investment in YBR to position itself for growth and offer clients a diverse range of financial and welth management services and products respectively.
As part of the changes announced to the ASX, the company referred to a wealth management restructure following the recent resignation of the CEO, Wealth Management.
It said the wealth division would be restructured and in future would be led by the newly-created role of general manager reporting directly to the executive chairman.
It said the broader corporate restructure involved the removal of a number of management level roles across the company in lending, wealth and marketing that are no longer required due to the fulfilment of projects and the integration of acquired businesses.
The ASX announcement quoted YBR executive chairman, Mark Bouris, as saying the company, as part of the franchise transition, would release three proprietary technologies to the network which would ramp up local customer acquisition capabilities to improve productivity.
"Moving to a franchise model is an important progression in our operations," he said. "The old licence structure served us well but is not adequately responsive or commercial to meet our future challenges and opportunities for a retail oriented business like ours."
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