12th August 2007

All Trades Network Celebrates Franchise Formula

The Lancashire company is now celebrating creating as many as 26 branches in the following three years as part of a flourishing franchise network, working with Franchise Development Services North (FDS North).

All Trades Network provides a managed repairs service for the insurance industry using its own trades people to assess, cost and carry out guaranteed repairs to domestic properties. It was established in 2002 by Keith Roberts, Cliff Whitehead and Michael Gibson and the trio very quickly realised there was a demand for their service.

“By the end of the second year of trading our turnover had reached £3 million and we were working with some of the biggest insurers of the UK,” said managing director Keith.

“We knew there was scope for expansion because we were constantly being asked to work outside our region, but we didn’t have the available funds to buy and staff new branches. “Franchising seemed a viable option, but we had no experience in this field, so we contacted Tony Urwin from FDS to talk through our ideas.”

All Trades Network was a perfect business to franchise as it offered a unique service with strong branding and good growth potential, according to Tony. “All Trades Network had already got an established customer base and a growing reputation in the insurance world,” he said. “And because the business had been up and running successfully for a couple of years it was an ideal pilot to base the franchise model on. 

“This then allowed us to create a business model for franchisees and to identify the skills base that the franchisee would need to acquire.” Working with FDS also involved training on how to support a franchise network for Keith and his partners. “The whole process took considerable time and investment, so it’s not a quick fix for businesses looking to grow,” said Keith." But we worked closely with Tony to understand the differences between running your own business and that of a franchise network.

“All our roles had to change and become more business support focused rather than the operations management we were used to. “We also had to look at our systems and processes to establish what needed to change. In our case, the IT we had in place wasn’t capable of supporting a multi-branch operation so we had to increase our capacity. Tony was a great sounding board throughout the process and effectively acted as a translator, taking our business systems and jargon and putting them into laymen’s terms for the potential franchise.”

The company took on its first franchise in July 2005 and in the last two years hasn’t looked back, adding another 26 franchisees to the network.

“Franchising is a great way to go for us, because the franchise has the same level of commitment and dedication to the business that we have, because they own their branch in their own right,” said Keith. “Plus at any point we could stop the franchising and expand through organic growth, but I can’t see that happening at any time in the near future. In fact our goal for the next twelve months is to build the brand nationally and increase the network by another eight franchisees. All Trades Network is a great example of planned growth through franchising,” said Tony.

Return to News Centre

 

Franchise Consultants based in the North West