Hear real life franchisee stories at the Olympia, London exhibition

whichfranchise is delighted to once again be sponsoring the ‘Real Franchise Stories’ panels, the next of which is at the British & International Franchise Exhibition in Olympia, London on 13th and 14th of March 2015.

At whichfranchise we are passionate about helping you to decide if franchising is right for you, so what better way to do this than hearing first-hand from real-life franchisees about their journey into franchising.

What is it really like to run a franchise? Has it changed their lives for the better? What might they have done differently with hind sight? Come along to the franchisee panels on each day of the exhibition and hear the answers to these and many other questions, as well as having the opportunity to pose your questions to franchisees from businesses including: Auditel, Ecocleen, Right at Home, ERA, Driver Hire, McDonalds, Anytime Fitness, Oscar Pet Food, Greensleeves, and Revive

Panelists at the forthcoming exhibition will include:

Theatre 1: Friday, 13th of March, 13.15 - 14.00

Theatre 1: Friday, 13th of March. 15.00 - 15.45

Theatre 1: Saturday. 14th of March. 13.00 - 13.45

Theatre 1: Saturday. 14th of March. 15.00 - 15.45

Testimonies about the panel speakers:

Friday – 1:15pm

Auditel – Chris Bourke
Before joining Auditel in May 2006, I spent 18 years in the Energy industry. I worked in a number of senior roles, particularly in the gas and electricity market. I’m currently enjoying my role at Auditel as a cost management consultant. It’s a position that enables me to help organisations become more efficient and profitable by cutting overhead expenditure. The devil is in the detail, and my role allows me to analyse meticulously every area of cost, with the aim of elimiWayne Palmer regional Director East Midlands
Wayne previously managed a large Leisure Centre that had been cleaned by Ecocleen, so he had first-hand experience of seeing Ecocleen in action. Wayne says he related to our commercial values of passionate, service, delivery so when the region came up for re-sale he could confidentially invest. Wayne's enthusiasm coupled with the support of our Marketing and Sales Team has enabled his region to already see growth.nating all lost profit. My clients come from businesses, schools, colleges, and charities.

Ecocleen - Salvatore Lombardo
"I joined Ecocleen in 2009 when I decided to bring over my existing cleaning business. I was looking to be part of a successful brand, recognized and respected throughout the cleaning industry, and in just a short time I realised I had made the right decision. At times it has been hard work but Ecocleen has been there for me all along. I've had all the training and support I’ve needed. Being part of this tested and approved franchise model means that you can concentrate on growing and operating your business, while in the back ground there is a HOST at Ecocleen's head office dealing with your everyday cash collections, invoicing and other admin tasks. Being part of Ecocleen has been a rewarding experience, both from a financial and personal perspective. "

Right at Home – Tim Haigh
Tim opened Right at Home (Sutton and Epsom) in 2011, working with Registered Manager Victoria Stone, and is proud of the great work his care team has achieved in their community.
He says: “Right at Home provides quality home care to seniors and disabled adults. What does that mean in practice? It means that we travel in our time not yours, we arrive on time, we supply the same friendly carers for each visit and we insist each visit is not less than one hour. We don’t cut corners and we never compromise on quality. Under our care you can be assured your loved one will continue to live a full and happy life in the comfort of their own home.”

Tim began his career as a journalist and rose to become an award-winning magazine editor and communications director. Before joining Right at Home, he spent 14 years working for Reed Elsevier, one of the world’s largest media companies, on a number of well-known national publications, including Community Care, the UK’s leading social care magazine.

Friday – 3pm

ERA – Andrew Beer
Andy is a highly experienced equities market professional with extensive product knowledge as a result of a career spanning more than twenty years as an equities trader for major UK banks prior to joining ERA. He has wide-ranging trading experience and a good insight of derivative products, hedging risk, regulatory, and settlements issues. Andy has also spent 3 years running a security business. Since joining ERA towards the end of 2012, Andy has utilised his experience to focus his new business on client acquisition, banking and finance.

Driver Hire – Bob McKinley
Bob and his partner, Monika Kaluzna, bought Driver Hire’s Twickenham franchise in October 2010. He felt that the support and back-up provided by Driver Hire was the best low risk route to becoming his own boss. Outside work Bob is a keen cyclist. Whilst the effort needed to make his business succeed sometimes meant - in the early days – that his cycling had to take a backseat, Bob now knows that the rewards made it worthwhile. “The plus point is that as you develop the business, the more you put in, the more you get out – that’s both in terms of financial success and in opportunities to ride my bike!” It’s certainly showing through in their performance. In 2012 Bob and Monika with their Twickenham franchise won Driver Hire’s ‘New Start of the Year’ award, and this year they’re on track to hit the £1m turnover mark.

McDonalds – David Padmore
Dave joined McDonald’s in 1983 as a Trainee Manager after finishing his degree in Applied Chemistry (Pharmaceutical). Dave progressed through the hierarchy, working in Europe and then back in the UK, having a very successful 6 years where he embedded his standards and achieved some outstanding results. In October 2005 Dave was given the opportunity to become a Franchisee, he took ownership of Bexhill, Hastings and St Leonards. After two years of hard work and strong results, Dave was given the chance to expand further and purchased a restaurant in Uckfield in 2007, shortly followed by another in Eastbourne in 2008. Dave added his sixth store to his group, with the opening of a new restaurant, Polegate. Dave opened his 7th restaurant, Maresfield, in January 2013.

Saturday – 1pm

Anytime Fitness – Shravan Reddy
Shravan opened Anytime Fitness St Paul’s in December 2014 following a number of years running his own business in property investment and development, as well as having worked with both HSBC and Motorola.

Oscars – Simon and Helen Thomas
After selling their business, home, and moving to the Isle of Wight Simon and Helen Thomas planned to become employed and leave decision-making and the pressures that they found in running a public service business to someone else. Luckily Simon found work but when redundancy loomed, they chose to become self-employed once again, but this time running their own OSCAR franchise. “From the beginning OSCAR helped us every step of the way, making the start up process easy to follow. The extensive training programme provided us with confidence in the quality of products and level of service whilst ticking all the boxes on how to run a pet food home delivery business from the comfort of our own home.”

Revive – Scott Gosbell
eight years ago to be nearer his wife’s family. His career to date has been spent in business and finance, latterly working as area support manager for the Big Yellow Storage Company. “The time was right for a change,” said Scott. “I’ve always enjoyed car detailing and have an interest in cars and the corporate life was beginning to wear me down. Instead of always having to meet other people’s targets I decided I’d far rather set my own and work towards building a profitable business for me and my family. After just two months since start-up Scott hit all of his sales targets and is delighted with the way his business is going.

Saturday – 3pm

Greensleeves – Nick Hulm
Nick Hulm has just started his 4th year as a successful Greensleeves Lawn Care franchisee. Having worked in the Horticultural industry for 10 years, Nick always had an ambition of running his own business, especially one focusing in the service sector. Once Nick realised the potential of the Lawn Care industry, he could wait to get started. This year he hope to grow the business further and has just taken on his first full time employee. He thinks that a good relationship between franchisee/franchisor is the key to a great business.

Driver Hire – Andrew Padgett, Franchisee, Ashford and Tonbridge
Andrew joined Driver Hire in 1998 when he bought the Ashford franchise. He had been a superstore manager in electrical retail where he managed a team of thirty. Like many Driver Hire franchisees, he had no previous experience of the transport or recruitment industries before joining Driver Hire.
Andrew successfully built up his business to cover both Ashford and Canterbury, and now has an annual turnover of more than £1 million.

“Being a Driver Hire franchisee is a constant challenge that I relish and thoroughly enjoy - working with such a large range of people on a daily basis,” says Andrew. “It can be hard work but I still take pleasure in the variety of work and rewards it provides”.

Friday – 3pm

ERA – Andrew Beer
Andy is a highly experienced equities market professional with extensive product knowledge as a result of a career spanning more than twenty years as an equities trader for major UK banks prior to joining ERA. He has wide-ranging trading experience and a good insight of derivative products, hedging risk, regulatory, and settlements issues. Andy has also spent 3 years running a security business. Since joining ERA towards the end of 2012, Andy has utilised his experience to focus his new business on client acquisition, banking and finance.

Why not also drop by the whichfranchise stand where you will receive even more impartial information and advice on entering into the world of franchising.