Australian Franchise News – 20-09-12
Brendan Green, CEO of Australian handyman franchise Hire A Hubby, is tipping another strong year for the company with year-on-year double digit growth propelling expansion for the past five years.
Since purchasing Hire A Hubby in 1997, Mr Green has shaped the business to growth with an average annual turnover increase of 30 percent, taking it from just 1 franchisee to 301 and turnover nearing $50 million in Australia alone.
With recent research commissioned by Hire A Hubby showing Australians are less ‘handy’ around the home than ever, Mr Green said the company’s services continued to be in high demand.
“We’re very fortunate that despite difficult economic times our offering is highly sought after across our franchise territories,” he said. “As a result, we’re predicting a strong year for the business despite generally sluggish consumer spending.
“We expect to open at least 90 new franchises across Australia this financial year as a result of our continued expansion and new opportunities with supplier deals that will see an increase in demand for our services.
“Our modeling shows Australia could sustain 700 Hire A Hubby franchisees in total, so we’re just under half way to that goal and getting closer every day.
“Multi person businesses make up 50 percent of our network and over the next two years there are opportunities for franchisees to grow through multi van franchising if they choose to.”
Mr Green said the company had invested $500,000 in its business systems in the past 12 months to support the rapid growth.
“We surveyed our franchisees about what they needed and as a result overhauled our system completely and introduced a number of tools to ensure Hire A Hubby is a desirable and profitable business for incoming franchisees.
“Our goal is to help franchisees increase profitability by 50-100 percent in the next two years.
“We’ve also built an excellent management structure and invested in extra staff at a corporate level to allow us to grow quickly without sacrificing support of our existing franchise network.”
Mr Green said the business was highly attractive to prospective franchises.
“We maintain a strong rate of franchise enquiries, with around 1000 leads per year contributing to our strong growth over the past five years. Benefits such as our income guarantee and accredited training course for new franchisees make the business more appealing.
“We are also seeing more people approaching the franchise as a large business opportunity and have seen a shift in more people wanting to grow and manage a business with multiple vans rather than be a single man in a van model.
“I expect these numbers to continue to grow with pressures on manufacturing and other industries causing more people to seriously consider becoming their own boss. Our franchises start at $45,000 so owning a Hire A Hubby business is a very feasible option for many people.”
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