Tsunaguya strengthens franchise recruitment support to help stores secure staff before opening

Kaitoru, the company behind Tsunaguya, a Japanese chain specialising in buying pre-owned valuables, has expanded its recruitment support for franchisees since July 2026. The initiative follows requests from franchisees who had signed franchise agreements but were unable to open their stores because they could not recruit staff. According to the company’s announcement dated 8 September, head office support has already resulted in three appointments.

Tackling delays between signing an agreement and opening a store

The expanded support grew out of franchisees’ concerns about securing staff. According to the company, some franchisees were making progress with premises and equipment but could not find the people needed to run their stores, preventing them from opening as scheduled.

Preparing to open a store involves more than securing premises and equipment. Tsunaguya says recruiting the right staff is also important if franchisees are to start trading and establish stable operations. The initiative brings practical head office support to this pre-opening challenge.

For franchisees with limited recruitment experience, the company says, tasks such as choosing recruitment platforms, drafting job adverts and communicating with applicants can be a burden. Even when franchisees recognise the need to hire, managing advertising and selection on their own can become an obstacle to opening.

The company views helping franchisees open their stores and start trading—not simply expanding the franchise network—as an important part of head office’s role. It plans to support preparations after an agreement is signed by adding recruitment assistance to its existing franchise set-up and sales support.

End-to-end support, from recruitment platforms to start dates

The expanded recruitment service goes beyond advice. The announcement lists support with choosing recruitment platforms and placing adverts, drafting job descriptions and adverts, handling applicants, screening applications, arranging interviews, attending or conducting interviews, selecting candidates, communicating job offers and following up with recruits before they start.

At the advertising stage, head office helps franchisees choose platforms and prepare copy. Its involvement continues through applicant communications, selection, interviews and follow-up after an offer has been made. A key feature of the initiative is that support does not end when an advert is published: it also covers the communication and procedures leading up to a recruit’s start date.

The company says this close involvement is intended both to reduce franchisees’ recruitment workload and to allow head office and franchisees to assess together which candidates are suited to running a Tsunaguya store. Rather than leaving recruitment entirely to franchisees, the approach makes it a joint effort.

However, the announcement sets out only the scope of the work covered. It does not disclose details such as support fees, who pays for recruitment advertising or how responsibilities are divided at individual stores. Prospective franchisees should therefore look beyond the statement that recruitment support is available and establish who handles each stage and what costs apply.

Three appointments confirmed, but the impact on store openings remains unclear

According to the company, head office recruitment support has resulted in three appointments since the service was expanded in July. It also says the support produced a successful recruitment outcome within roughly one month of its launch.

The announcement dated 8 September lists a September start for one recruit and a planned October start for another. It does not give a start date for the third. Readers should distinguish between the number of appointments confirmed and the number of people who have actually joined and begun working in stores.

These figures show that the recruitment support has led to concrete hiring decisions. However, the published information does not include the number of franchisees supported, the number of applicants or the time taken to recruit for each store. The three appointments alone are therefore insufficient to assess the recruitment success rate or the initiative’s overall impact.

The announcement also does not establish how many stores were able to open as a result of these appointments, or how much their opening schedules improved. Assessing whether the initiative resolves the problem of stores being unable to open because they cannot recruit staff will require further information on what happens after recruits start work and on actual store openings.

What to check about head office support before joining

Kaitoru is based in Chuo City, Tokyo, and focuses on buying precious metals, branded goods, jewellery and similar items. Alongside its company-owned stores, it aims to bring its reuse services to more communities through franchising.

In the announcement, the company says it will continue strengthening support beyond the signing of franchise agreements, helping franchisees address challenges throughout recruitment, store openings and subsequent operations. For the franchise sector, the initiative illustrates how cooperation between head office and franchisees can extend into the practical work of preparing a store to open.

Prospective franchisees should examine not only the sales and operational expertise provided, but also how they will secure the people needed to put it into practice. The stages highlighted here—drafting job adverts, handling applicants, conducting interviews and following up before recruits start—provide a useful checklist for assessing the substance of a franchisor’s recruitment support.

Practical takeaway: Before signing a franchise agreement, ask which recruitment tasks are covered, who bears the costs and how responsibilities are divided between head office and the franchisee. Develop a recruitment plan alongside preparations for premises and equipment, and discuss how the opening schedule would be handled if hiring takes longer than expected.