David and Dawn Jarvis from Hastings have grown up with Oscar – starting back in 1996. With little knowledge of franchising and the pet food industry, David’s 23 years in banking meant he was about to embark on a life-changing experience. Ideally, this was for himself and Dawn to join forces and make a go of working together for themselves and their family.

 

Franchising has given them the opportunity to succeed in business, while living family life to the full. Oscar stood out from the crowd, even in those days, and while Oscar has undergone a series of changes in terms of development, the basics remain proactive and innovative towards business and pet food manufacturing.

 

Franchising offered them a proven system together with training, help and expertise to get off to a good start. The ongoing support took away the time-consuming chores of running a private business, making way for them to concentrate on income generation.

 

“Franchising has given us the opportunity to succeed in a business that we knew very little about. We have learnt as we have progressed and always been comforted with the knowledge that there was someone to guide or assist us at times of difficulties. In particular, advice from the franchisor helped us to avoid costly mistakes. Franchising gives you the best of both worlds. The independence of owning and operating your business with a tried and tested system, without having to deal with the many administrative, time consuming, non-income generating matters that would be apparent in an independent business. Best of all is that, as the owner, your income is determined by your own efforts and is therefore controlled by yourself.

 

“We love being able to offer a high level of customer service, while providing foods of the best quality at competitive prices. It’s great to be part of a larger organisation where you can still have that personal contact with your customer. We believe that we have both been successful; Oscar foods are kept up to date with the pet food industry and now have a reputation that puts us among the best in the pet food sector. Today, our customers generate themselves and we know just what they want. Albeit that we enjoy promoting our brand at local shows – we now have the confidence to treat each event as a social occasion rather than hard work. We can defy the saying, ‘Don’t mix business with pleasure’, after fifteen years of working together, we are still together, and thriving!”