British Franchise Association reveals The bfa HSBC Franchise Award 2018 Winners

From home care provision to youth theatre schools, and from caring for the nation’s beloved pets to online learning, these are just some of the outstanding businesses that have been announced as winners in this year’s bfa HSBC Franchise Awards.

The awards ceremony took place last night, on 28 June at the ICC in Birmingham, highlighting some of the best entrepreneurs and businesses in the UK today.

Below is the full list of winners:

FRANCHISOR CATEGORIES

Franchisor of the Year

Award for franchisors demonstrating excellence in franchising by providing a strong infrastructure and support for its network, ensuring franchisees have the best environment to succeed and reach their full potential.

Gold Award

McDonald’s Restaurants Ltd – the fast food restaurant chain with 167 franchisees

Silver Award

Agency Express – a leading ‘For Sale’ board company, offering a daily service to over 50% of all UK estate agencies via a network of 114 franchisee operations

Bronze Award

Driver Hire Nationwide – a national specialist provider of temporary and permanent transport and logistics staff, with a total of 102 offices, from Inverness to Plymouth

Emerging Franchisor of the Year

Award for franchisors who can demonstrate they have built the strong foundations to create the infrastructure necessary to sustain growth and tackle the challenges that can occur in infancy

We Love Pets – a family business set up nine years ago to help pet owners balance work pressures, holidays and busy lifestyles with the care of their pets

Brand Awareness

Award for franchisors who demonstrate a commitment to better understanding their consumer market and effectively engaging with it through the implementation of a PR and marketing strategy

Stagecoach Performing Arts – a performing arts school which is celebrating its 30th birthday this year and welcoming 1 million part-time students through its doors over the that time

Award for Innovation

Award for franchisors who demonstrate an ongoing commitment and investment in research and development. enabling franchisees to maximise efficiencies or attract a larger market

Tutor Doctor – a leading online tutoring service provider in the UK offering person to person educational home tuition

Award for Franchise Support

Award for franchisors who have provided a framework that includes continual training, coaching and mentoring, encouraging optimum performance and excellent engagement with franchisees

Revive! Auto Innovations (UK) Ltd – a mobile SMART repair service for motor vehicles, which reduces the need to visit a traditional bodyshop for light repairs

FRANCHISEE CATEGORIES

Young Franchisee of the Year

Award for under 30s who have established a profitable franchise and achieved success beyond their years

Right at Home – Almas Adam (Essex) – care providers offering in-home caregiving services for almost any family in practically any situation

Lifestyle Franchisee of the Year

Award for franchisees who have bought a franchise to achieve a better work-life balance and through their enterprising nature stand out from the crowd

Razzamataz Theatre Schools – Hayley Limpkin (Medway, Kent) – offering exceptional training in dance, drama and singing, together with exciting performance opportunities for young people

Customer Focus Franchisee of the Year

Award for franchisees that go above and beyond to deliver the best customer experience in both B2B and B2C businesses

Dyno – Machmade Ltd (RJ, NP, DJ Illingworth) (Merseyside) – specialists in the plumbing, heating and drainage markets, offering a 24 hour all year round emergency service to both contract and on-demand customers

Multi-unit Award

Award for franchisees with more than three units in the same network that can prove their evolution and strategy has demonstrated sustainable growth across their portfolio

Costa – Diljit Brar (Goldex Investments Group Ltd) (Essex, Surrey, Sussex, Kent) – operator of 71 franchises in the Costa Coffee network

Network Contribution Award

Award for franchisees who appreciate the benefit of being part of a network and are considered to be a significant contributing partner to the franchisor and a mentor to the network, which has resulted in increased profitability for the overall business model

InXpress – Neil Hatt (Birmingham) – a global shipping franchise organisation delivering carrier solutions to small and medium sized businesses for domestic and international document, parcel, and package shipments via its carrier partners

Franchisee of the year – People’s Choice Award

Award for the franchisee who has demonstrated excellence in franchising by providing a strong profitable franchise and are a model for the industry

Razzamataz Theatre Schools – Hayley Limpkin (Medway, Kent) – offering exceptional training in dance, drama and singing, together with exciting performance opportunities for young people

The British Franchise Association (bfa) is the not-for-profit self-regulatory governing body for UK franchising and has run its annual awards for nearly 30 years. Franchising is a simple relationship between two parties, the franchisor who owns the brand and business system, and the franchisee who contracts to run a copy of that business in a local area. These widely-respected awards recognise both franchisors and franchisees who have demonstrated outstanding business acumen, innovation and achievement.

Pip Wilkins, CEO of the bfa, explains: “It’s over forty years since the bfa was launched specifically to develop ethical franchising in the UK, and I am proud of the way the sector has grown in that time, with the industry’s turnover exceeding £15bn – that’s 1% of the UK’s GDP! If you are running a successful business or want to be your own boss, then franchising is a valid and important option for accelerating your business growth or starting your own commercial venture.

“The bfa HSBC Franchise Awards 2018 are a celebration of the broad church that is franchising in the UK, from a large multi-national to a lifestyle business, as franchisors come in all shapes and sizes. Every year it’s really great to see the excellent work our members demonstrate through their entries and the quality has never been higher. I would like to thank all our finalists in this year’s awards and congratulate our winners, it was an extremely hard job for the judges to separate them. It’s great to see such a wide range of businesses represented as it really does illustrate the depth and breadth of franchising opportunities in the UK.”

Andrew Brattesani, UK Head of Franchising for the Awards’ sponsor HSBC, said, “HSBC is delighted to be once again supporting these industry leading franchise awards. Franchise businesses are often the hidden engine of business growth in the UK and it is essential to highlight the important contribution both large and small businesses make to our economy. It is also important to showcase to people that they can run their own businesses and if you don’t want to go it alone, or haven’t got a strong business idea, you can still be successful and become your own boss, as together we thrive.”