Multiple choice
- Article 2 of 3
- Business Franchise, December 2011
If you have solid management skills, why not consider becoming a multi-unit franchisee? There is serious money to be made, as Rob Buckley reports
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As Richard Johnson, a Domino’s franchisee who now runs fivestores, says: “If you can learn how to run one store well, there’s no reason why you can’t run two stores well. The sky’s the limit.”
McDonald’s
Nigel Dunington worked for McDonald’s US, UK and Europe for 26 years, before becoming a franchisee in 2006. He now runs eight McDonald’s restaurants in Preston and around Blackpool.
Is it difficult to run so many restaurants?
It’s hard work. It’s a very active, hands-on, ‘be engaged in the business’ role. Whether I work a five-day, six-day or even sometimes seven-day week, it’s generally in the restaurants. I haven’t got an office as such: my office is generally the dining area or in the corridor or working on the floor with the staff.
How did you expand to eight restaurants?
For the first couple of years, I ran the five restaurants myself as a supervisor. When in 2009, McDonald’s came to me and offered the Blackpool restaurants for me to buy, I took on a supervisor to look after the Preston restaurants. It was a calculated risk but if I was to get the best out of the Blackpool restaurants, I needed that structure.
What are you plans?
My goal is grow to eight to 14 restaurants in the next five to 10 years. I think that's achievable from my end.
Any tips?
Don’t become so big that you become a mini-corporation and lose the benefits of franchising.
Granite Transformations
After running his own IT recruitment business, Peter Morrison opened his firs Granite Transformations showroom in Cambridge in 2004 and now runs a second in Brentwood.
Why did you open the second store?
To be a credible business, you need to have retail premises within reasonably close distance to your customers, even though probably the majority never come into the showroom. Also, Brentwood was always part of our patch, but it was undeveloped so the thinking was to increase revenue and profit by better use of our territory.
How has it affected things?
There’s now a 50/50 split in our business between the two showrooms. You get more stability from the point of view of sales. Everyone has poor runs in terms of sales, but it usually coincides with the other store doing better so it balances out.
Do you have to split your time?
I have a sales person who works with the other showroom so it’s fairly self-sufficient.
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