Top 20: Franchisor of the Year (Part 1)

The most prestigious accolade a UK franchise can attain, the Franchisor of the Year award attracted an outstanding level of entrants for its 25th anniversary edition.

If that sounds like typical awards blurb, then consider this: the seven finalists include three former winners, last year’s Silver and Bronze winners, a finalist in the brand category from 2013 and an 18-year veteran of franchising. How’s that for a high standard?
Support, innovation, improvement, ethics, engagement, ongoing success...they’re all found in abundance at this level. Just to be one of the magnificent seven is of great credit to these franchisors and the way they conduct their operations.

On Thursday evening one of them will be named as the UK’s Franchisor of the Year 2014, and they’ll have overcome six other deserving businesses for the right to call themselves that. This is why they’re here:

Agency Express
Since taking third place in last year’s awards, Agency Express have undergone another stellar year of growth, innovation and improvement. The UK’s largest ‘For Sale’ board company, its network of more than 100 franchisees is responsible for putting up one in three of all such signs, works with the top 20 property agencies and all bfa members that need such services.

Throughout the financial crisis, with property sales hit hard, its combined network turnover has grown by 122 percent; in the last year alone it rose by almost a third, while the number of clients it works with climbed 24 percent. It credits three key factors in its impressive, sustained growth: support, innovation and investment.

Support begins with national accounts providing substantial revenue for each franchisee and all invoicing and credit control being carried out by head office. The regular Property Activity Index report has developed even further as a PR tool to generate brand awareness in the industry. Open disclosure is valued, including the creation of a franchisee forum, and franchisees are involved in forward-planning and have helped to identify new markets. Strong resale support is also on offer – the average time one is on the market is just 7 weeks and ROI has proven substantial.

Innovation and investment have long been cornerstones of the business and the company continues to invest heavily in its bespoke SignMaster 3 management system (£1.5m to date and counting), which has added even more features in the last 12 months – including automatic ordering, direct interfacing with estate agency software, routeplanning which saves on average £30 per week, and a new system that imports data to a franchisee’s PDA enabling the ultimate on-the-go, paperless operations. As is the Agency Express way, the new innovations all come at no extra cost to the franchisee and no marketing levy is charged.

The results speak for themselves. Every KPI has improved in the last year. Around 50 percent more boards are going up each day than this time last year. Since they began franchising, 49 agreements have come up for renewal; all but one have been signed for a further 10-year term.

A rare greenfield site opened last year and the franchisee achieved his year 3 projections after 6 months. Agency Express asked him how he’d done it. His reply? “I’m doing what you told me.”

To find out more about the Agency Express franchise opportunity, please click here.

Autosmart
Winners of this award in 2008 and 2012, and taking bronze in 2010; winner of the Franchisee Support award in 2011; and the only company shortlisted in two categories this year...it’s fair to say Autosmart have developed quite a reputation for ethical franchising excellence. The last year showcases once again why that’s the case.

By late 2012, after four years of declining car sales, one-third of Autosmart’s franchisees were celebrating personal business best revenues; one-third were stable, back at pre-recession levels but needing to grow; and one-third were decreasing in turnover. Focusing on the former, the company devised strategies and designed programmes to help all franchisees reach their potential.

Concentrating on four broad areas, they engaged outside experts to develop psychological coaching techniques and a suite of motivational tools at a cost to the franchisor of £150,000. Passport to Success involved personal goal-setting; Make Every Day Count looked at how top-performing franchisees ran their operations, and replicating their success; Pool Your Power harnessed the combined strength of the network, increasing engagement opportunities; and Achieve Great Results Every Day looked at motivation and positive thinking. The whole strategy was wrapped up in what every business owner needs each day – a multi-layered (for each technique), multicoloured bottle of Oomph!

In a vehicle-based network, implementing such strategies was never going to be easy but with close engagement combining with exceptional results for franchisees old and new, across the country and across demographics, buy-in has been secured far and wide with astonishing results.

In 2013 its franchise network achieved record sales of over £44m, representing growth of 10 percent year-on-year and a 36 percent increase on its 2008 pre-recession best; this in a market that was decimated by the downturn, with car sales having only recently recovered to 2008 levels. Taking a personal approach with each franchisee has reaped rich rewards: 84 percent of the network is now in growth and individual success stories abound.

By placing franchisee profitability at the heart of its corporate goals, innovating its network support and increasing engagement, Autosmart has put itself in an enviable position. Franchisor turnover and profit are up and the company has invested in a new development site to cope with increased product demand.
Ongoing initiatives are already in place for this year and beyond to maintain growth: March 2014 was the best-ever month for network turnover; April 2014 promptly broke that record. It now finally has market sales in its favour too. The future looks bright.

To find out more about the Autosmart franchise opportunity, please click here.

Domino’s
Another former winner of Franchisor of the Year in 2004 and runner-up twice since, Domino’s franchise success story continues apace. First opened in the UK in Luton in 1985, the pizza giant now has in excess of 800 franchised stores operating across the UK and Ireland, with further operations in Switzerland and Germany. That growth has come about through close collaboration from the outset with its franchisees, alongside clear strategic direction and leadership.

The leadership is obvious: an IT helpdesk is manned until 5am every day of the year; in-house PR is on hand for national and local promotions; a new logo and interior design have been installed. Training is integral in upholding brand standards across such a large network. Alongside franchisees, store managers are required to complete a combination of online, book-based and classroom programmes. Efficient e-learning has become much more prominent and the franchisor has recognised the shift towards multi-unit ownership with new courses for area managers.

Each outlet receives three unannounced store visits per year to maintain standards, feedback from which directly inform on a franchisee’s suitability for expansion. Existing franchisees take on the majority of the re-sale and new stores that become available, a reward for their work for and belief in the brand.

The company is clear: in keeping with the importance of franchisees as central to the brand from day one, Domino’s provides broad structures and systems but encourages its franchisees to put their own mark on their business, welcoming quirky, individual owners.

That’s well-reflected in its diversity, with different specialities such as the student market, social media expertise and so on being allowed to rise to the fore. Franchisees are encouraged to provide new product ideas and the network votes its franchisee representatives onto the Domino’s marketing committee. The two company-wide franchise meetings per year consistently achieve near-total network attendance.

A huge growth in ecommerce (61 percent of orders are now online) is typical of the continual investment in operations provided by Domino’s as part of its franchisor commitments. Perhaps that’s best summed up in the head office adage: “If you don’t make them, bake them or take them – make sure you support those that do.”

To find out more about the Domino's franchise opportunity, please click here.

 

Click here to read Part 2 detailing the other franchise business who have been shortlisted for the 'Franchisor of the Year' award.