Australian Franchise News – 13-08-12
AN emphasis on customer service and community involvement has seen Queensland’s PoolWerx franchise partners Michelle and Tony Graham float to the top and crowned ‘QLD/NT Franchisee of the Year (Multi-unit)’ at the state’s Excellence in Franchising Awards.
The Franchise Council of Australia award recognised the husband and wife team for their outstanding performance across their multi-franchise business comprising retail and mobile stores in Samford, Keperra, The Gap and Indooroopilly and two mobile operations in Chapel Hill and Kenmore, which is one of the largest PoolWerx multi-franchise operations nationally.
Mr Graham said they were absolutely humbled by the award and dedicated it to the commitment of employees and community support.
“To think that we’ve been recognised ahead of multi-million dollar franchises is something that blows us both away and we totally didn’t expect it,” he said.
“It just shows that it comes down to the journey. We started out with the man-in-a-van model all those years ago and grew to where we are today and our fantastic employees and their commitment to our customers is what has got us here.
“We love what we do and we’ve worked really hard to get here. We support the community and our customers and they support us in return, and we’re both absolutely humbled by this achievement.”
He said the decision to open a franchise ten years ago had paid dividends.
“We gave up strong corporate careers to launch into a business that was viewed as just cleaning pools and this was hard for some of our extended family to understand, but now they are proud of what we have done and see it was worth it.
“Our children are very proud of our achievements and especially pleased with the work life balance the business affords us. We are family and community orientated people and the balance is something we’ve always worked towards.”
“We love the community we operate in and will continue to support it with fundraising and local activity as this is something we feel privileged to offer.”
PoolWerx CEO John O’Brien congratulated the Graham’s and said they were well deserved of the recognition.
“Michelle and Tony exemplify the dedication and commitment PoolWerx franchise partners are renowned for and it’s testament to their hard work that they’ve been recognised as the best multi unit franchise in the state,” he said.
“They are among our top performing franchise partners and their guidance and motivation for others in the PoolWerx network is a huge asset to us.”