Territory lines that respect Kiwi catchments
Postcode circles copied from overseas manuals often fail here. Drive time, school zones, and coastal tourism change the map.
Imported franchise manuals often protect a neat five-kilometre circle. In New Zealand that circle can swallow two suburbs that never share customers — or miss a coastal strip that empties your winter weekdays.
Start with how people actually move
Ask where your regulars work, school, and shop. A café near a university hospital draws differently from a café on a tourist pier. Territory & Expansion Planning should begin with those paths, then translate them into postcodes or radii your lawyer can draft.
Watch company stores and franchises on the same arterial
We have seen brands grant a franchise two lights down from a company site because “the radius looked fine on paper.” Lunch traffic does not read paper. Sequence openings so the network learns demand before owners compete for the same office block.
Leave room for vans and home services
For mobile concepts, territory is less about shopfronts and more about booking density within a practical drive. Overlapping vans create quiet calendars and tense group chats. Collapse zones early; expand when density earns it.
Good territory work feels almost boring: fewer grants, clearer lines, fewer apologies later.