2018 marks the 10-year anniversary of Franchise Brands plc, an international multi-brand franchisor with a combined network of over 450 franchisees in 12 countries across five brands. Since it was founded in 2008 by Stephen Hemsley (Executive Chairman) and Nigel Wray (Non-executive Director) the group has grown rapidly and now celebrates a decade of franchising success!
Franchise Brand’s vision is to create a group of market-leading franchise businesses that benefit from sharing the same support services. The group currently has five brands: Metro Rod, Metro Plumb, ChipsAway, Ovenclean and Barking Mad. It operates in sectors as diverse as drainage and plumbing to car paint repairs, oven cleaning and home dog boarding. While the group itself was founded in 2008, all of its brands are long established and have a combined trading history of nearly 100 years!
In 2016, Franchise Brands listed on the Alternative Investment Market (“AIM”) of the London Stock Exchange and now has a market capitalisation of approximately £60 million. 2017 saw the group acquire Metro Rod a leading provider of drain clearance and maintenance services to the commercial market. Metro Rod, which has 41 franchisees across the country, has gone from strength to strength under Franchise Brand’s ownership and is benefiting from the substantial investment Franchise Brands is making in the business. It was also pleased to recently award its first independent Metro Plumb franchise.
Stephen Hemsley, Executive Chairman said: “In a relatively short time, we have created a high-quality portfolio of brands with significant critical mass in the franchising sector. I am very proud of our success and would like to acknowledge the huge contribution of our franchisees, who are the bedrock of our business, and our staff who work so tirelessly to support our franchisees and help them grow their businesses. I am very excited about what the next 10 years might hold!”.
Julia Choudhury, Corporate Development Director, commented: “Our focus is on established franchise brands which can benefit from our shared support services such as franchise support, marketing and IT, as well as our management expertise and experience. We look forward to welcoming additional brands into the Franchise Brands family in the future”.
