Buying a franchise is a little less daunting than jumping head first into establishing your own brand. This made the decision to invest a little easier for Ferguson Plarre‘s young new recruits.
The average Australian in their 20s is probably just finding his or her feet in the world. They might be completing a university degree, returning from a working holiday or about to embark on one. Few of them are established business owners with plans to grow a mini empire. But that’s exactly what Diana, Laura and Frank Druda together with friend Stephanie Todio are doing as the new franchisees of Ferguson Plarre’s Brunswick store.
The eldest of the bunch, Frank, is 29, with his two sisters Diana and Laura aged 26 and 22 respectively and Frank’s friend and accounting colleague Stephanie, is 26.
Despite their ages, the four have a very professional and pragmatic approach to their business, each with dedicated roles and responsibilities. Diana and Laura work in the shop full time while Frank manages the finances and purchasing, and Stephanie the marketing and advertising.
Having a more hands-off approach to their store allows Frank and Stephanie to hold onto their full time accounting jobs, which is how the pair first met. “Getting into the franchise was something Frank and I always thought of as something to do outside our nine to five job, and it [accounting] has given us great experience in running a business,” says Stephanie.
Frank agrees, and adds that while he and Stephanie might not work in the bakery business as much as Laura and Diana, they are all equally invested in its success. “We’ve all got the same goals and ambitions,” he says. “It’s good that there’s four of us who want to drive in the same direction. It’s easier to delegate responsibilities and we’re not finding the pressure that we have to look after every area of the business. We’ve got trust in each other that we’re doing each of our responsibilities to the best of our abilities, because we’re all part owners, so we know that the care is going to be there.”
Despite being new to the world of business ownership, the Brunswick team understand what it takes to operate a franchise effectively and efficiently and have weekly meetings to ensure everything is running on track. “We’ve got an action list that we go through and that includes all areas of the business from who we’re going to order the milk from to what marketing strategy is coming into place next. Then we talk about things that need improvement and we add to that action list. We dedicate a person out of the four of us to take care of it and then each week we report back on what action was taken,” says Frank.
One of franchising’s unique selling points is the support offered to franchisees, and this is particularly relevant for this team of keen, green entrepreneurs. “It’s easy with the Ferguson Plarre model because you get a lot of assistance from head office. They assist with a lot of marketing and promotion and with the running of the business. They did good training at the beginning as well. My sisters worked in other stores for about a month or so, and they wouldn’t let us take over [Brunswick] until they thought we were capable of it, so that gave us some comfort in starting off,” says Frank.
Add to that the fact that Ferguson Plarre was familiar to Stephanie and the Drudas, having grown up nearby, and joining the system wasn’t as daunting as investing in a non-franchised business. “It was in the area, so we knew the market. There’s a store in Coburg so we grew up with Mum buying food there. We knew their products and we knew it worked because that store’s been there ever since I can remember.
“They just had the right model. We need to know the products but we don’t need to know how to make the products because it’s all outsourced from the factory. You just need the skills in managing the product, customer service and running the store. I think we have all those bases covered,” he says.
Despite only taking the reins of their store in November last year, this young bakery team isn’t slowing down any time soon, Frank says.
“Because we’ve got Diana and Laura both working there together, once [Brunswick] gets to a stage where it’s maintaining itself and one of them can run it, I don’t know why the other one can’t go and start another one. Then it can get to the stage where they’re just managing stores and we can have five or 10. That’s always an option. It’s not a short term thing but if it works and it goes well I can just see it escalating to more and more stores … We’re quite ambitious.”