Andrew Goddard has gone back to work at Belvoir – which was founded by his parents Mike and Stephanie in 1995 – after an eight-year break.

Stephanie Goddard stepped aside from Belvoir some years ago but Mike Goddard announced his retirement – as chairman – only this year. He has been succeeded by industry veteran Michael Stoop.

Now Andrew Goddard has returned to Belvoir in the role of operations specialist. He was previously operations director.

Belvoir CEO Dorian Gonsalves said: “Andrew Goddard and I previously worked together at Belvoir from 2005 to 2011 before Andrew decided to retire and focus on his family.

“I am delighted that Andrew has joined Belvoir again, and will be working directly for me on some exciting special projects, some of which will be connected to IT and some to other developments within the business.

“Andrew is a very bright individual with great in-depth specialist knowledge of franchising, and his skills will be invaluable to Belvoir going forwards.”

Speaking of his decision to rejoin the company that was started by his father, Mike Goddard, in 1995, Andrew said: “I’m very pleased to be back. I previously worked in the role of Belvoir operations director, helping to oversee the day-to-day running of the business.

“I left Belvoir in order to retire and become a stay at home dad, looking after our three children.

“However, the children are now a little older and the time seemed right to start to look for new opportunities. I am very much looking forward to working on the initiatives that Dorian has in mind.

“During my retirement I remained interested in Belvoir’s progress, to the extent that a couple of years ago my wife and I bought £30,000 worth of shares in the company as we thought they were a good investment.

“I remain firmly convinced that Belvoir is a very good company to invest in, so even more recently my wife and I bought a further £120,000 of shares, which I believe makes us one of the highest shareholders apart from Board members.

“I might add that we would have still bought those shares even if I hadn’t accepted this new role.

“From a personal point of view it has been very interesting to return to Belvoir, with some things remaining unchanged, such as Central Office still being situated in the Old Courthouse in Grantham, whilst other aspects of the business have changed dramatically, such as the introduction of sales, and the inclusion of other brands within the group.

” I am very much looking forward to my new role.”