Australian Franchise News – 11-11-09
Brisbane based national franchise business Go Gecko Property Sales is preparing for a strong year ahead with the appointment of three new senior staff to support a doubling of the number of its offices in the next 12 months.
Go Gecko Property Sales chief executive officer Geoff Doyle said he had an ambitious yet achievable target of having 60 offices operating by December 2010.
“We plan to open two more offices in the next two months, giving us 30 offices across Australia by the end of 2009, then aim to double that in 2010 to give us 60 offices Australia wide,” said Geoff Doyle.
“The appointment of Brendan Mulheran as general manager of Go Gecko Property Sales is a key element in our drive to grow the business,” he said.
“Brendan brings five years of experience as national operations manager with another franchise business, a role where he oversaw 75 stores across Australia and doubled turnover.
“He has proven experience and success to help Go Gecko Property Sales achieve the rapid growth we have planned for our near future.
“Our two other appointments are Ken Bryant to the role of national franchise recruitment manager and Adam Furlonger as national training manager,” he said.
New general manager Brendan Mulheran said he would draw on 22 years of experience in franchise business to enhance the structure and systems of Go Gecko to support the business’s growth.
“I see this as a great opportunity to grow a franchise business from the ground up considering Go Gecko Property Sales has only been operating for a relatively short time,” said Brendan Mulheran.
“It is also a great time to realise Go Gecko’s growth targets given the real estate market is now coming back with interest rate rises creating organic growth in the number of homes coming to market with owners wanting to upgrade and investors starting to return,” he said.
“Plus there is an extremely high level of interest from home sellers in Go Gecko’s capped commission of $5950 regardless of a homes sale price, this is bringing in a constant stream of requests for our service even in areas that are currently not serviced.
“Satisfying consumer demand for Go Gecko services in these void areas will be first priority. These areas are in South East Queensland growth corridors from Beenleigh to the Gold Coast and from Brisbane’s northern suburbs to the Sunshine Coast.
“We’ll also continue to grow Go Gecko’s offices in South Australia, Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales.
“Our growth will be achieved by establishing a combination of corporate offices and franchise offices.
National franchise recruitment manager Ken Bryant will be responsible for franchise growth.
“The recruitment role is essential to achieving our growth targets. Ken Bryant will oversee this to bring in the right people to match the Go Gecko philosophy and approach to real estate sales.
“Bringing in the right people as Go Gecko franchisees or staff in corporate offices will be the cornerstone to sustained expansion of the business and achieving ongoing success.
“In my experience I’ve seen a lot of franchise problems come from managing the wrong people who get involved with a business, so we aim to get it right from the start.
National training manager Adam Furlonger will have a pivotal role in the business.
“Training will focus firstly on giving new recruits the knowledge and tools they need to understand and apply the Go Gecko style of real estate sales and customer care – it’s vastly different to the methods of traditional agencies.
“We move faster, do things better and this is instilled early on for new franchisees and staff.
“Every month we aim to induct at least two new franchisees, plus run training for existing members of our Go Gecko teams as refresher training or training in new initiatives to keep them fresh and focused. All training will take place at Go Gecko’s head office at Virginia, in the northern suburbs of Brisbane.
Go Gecko Property Sales is Australia’s second fastest growing franchise business across all sectors for 2009. Go Gecko aims to revolutionise the real estate industry by setting new standards and building a company on honest and good customer service. Go Gecko has offices in Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia, and was established in 2003.