New franchise set to clean up Sunday, May 31, 2009 By Carol Hayes Having set up his first firm from scratch, Gavin Peacock decided to take a different route with his next venture, opting to franchise an existing business.
Two years ago, he invested €2 million in the master franchise for the Jan Pro cleaning business for Ireland and Britain. Set up in the US in 1991, Jan Pro has franchisees around the world offering cleaning services to all types of businesses. Based in Dublin, Peacock’s franchising operation has seven full-time staff and out sources its credit control, marketing and other functions.
Almost 50 new franchisees have joined the Irish operation in the last 15months,and he expects the business to have turnover of €3.5 million this year, double last year’s figure.
Clients include GlaxoSmithKline, Premier Recruitment, Tullow Oil and Kerry Group. ‘‘I was always attracted to the area of franchising. Having set up my own company, I knew how hard it was to build a business,” said Peacock, who founded Total Retail Control (TRC) in 1991 to provide technology solutions for retailers.
‘‘Jan Pro appealed to me. It’s a tried and tested model that’s low-tech and almost recession proof, because it’s not a luxury purchase. Although the contract cleaning business will be affected by the recession, it is viewed as a necessity, with obvious benefits that make it easy to sell.”
Peacock was also encouraged by statistics about franchising.
‘‘Ninety per cent of franchises are still in business ten years after setting up, whereas 80 per cent of businesses that set up from scratch go out of business in the first five years,” he said.
According to Peacock, J an Pro reduces the risk even further by guaranteeing its franchisee sales. ‘‘Franchisees purchase a turnover plan and, if the plan is not filled, the franchisees will get their money back,” he said.
‘‘The franchisee only has to worry about carrying out the work and hiring staff; Jan Pro will look after billing, credit control, collections and a regional office.”
Peacock grew up in Britain with Irish parents and worked for a number of IT companies before moving to Ireland in 1989.Two years later, he set up TRC, which is based in Dundrum in Dublin. The company has 20 staff and revenues of €4.1 million.
Ironically, an absence from that business led Peacock to the Jan Pro venture. ‘‘After being out of TRC for a number of months for family reasons, I found that I had a great management team in place. I felt that we could grow the business to a new level by empowering the existing management, with me serving in a chairman-like capacity,” he said.
That has left him free to focus on building up Jan Pro. Peacock has ambitious plans for the business, aiming to have turnover of €100millionwithin three years, driven by expansion of the British operation.
|
Text-Only