Pack & Send franchise partner Rebecca O’Brien owns two service centres and is eyeing up a third – all within three years of joining the logistics franchise.

Rebecca came into the Pack & Send brand with zero experience in the logistics world but plenty of ambition to grow a multi-site business.

Rebecca had built a career at Bunnings, joining at 14 and working her way up through operations, store support, compliance, and the future leaders’ program. She had spent half her life at the big box retailer when she swapped her career path for an unknown adventure.

“I decided to leave and I didn’t have a job to go to; I travelled for a bit,” Rebecca reveals.

After her travels, Rebecca returned to Victoria, met her husband, helped him upgrade and sell one of his restaurants and immersed herself in the world of hospitality.

Hospitality work and motherhood consumed the next few years.

“We had three girls, twins who were a few months old when Covid hit. I was exhausted by hospitality and wanted a new future.”

So Rebecca began researching businesses for sale between $200,000 and $500,000.

“I was prepared to do anything in Victoria except hospitality!” she says.

Growth potential for logistics

Rebecca stumbled across Pack & Send and overcame her initial doubts about investing in a franchise by doing background research.

“I wasn’t sure about franchises; I had only come across them in hospitality – and I hadn’t come across any outstanding franchises,” she says.

“Pack & Send looked interesting though, so I made some enquiries and researched the logistics industry. I didn’t know much, so I did a lot of research.”

Rebecca was galvanised by the growth potential for the Australian logistics sector over the next 10 years. And Pack & Send stood out.

“There aren’t many competitors offering a full service. Pack & Send has recently been bought out by MBE Worldwide, which is huge overseas, so I knew it would grow here.”

Rebecca was excited about the opportunity to own multiple stores within the Pack & Send network and waited to find the first site. It took just a few months before the Laverton territory west of Melbourne became available.

Pack & Send multi-site ambitions

This was a new location, so she started from scratch, built up a client base, and delivered a top-quality logistics service to a new market.

“It is always harder starting from nothing but I applied my business learnings from Bunnings and had solid support from Pack & Send. Opening a greenfield site was my driving force for the second store to be an existing business,” she says.

And within four months of purchasing her first Pack & Send business, Rebecca snapped up her second store.

“There was one in Melbourne CBD for sale; head office sent me the data pack and I rang back immediately and said, ‘I’ll buy it!’.”

Now she has her eyes on adding a third store to her portfolio.

Rebecca has leveraged her retail business experience and the benefits of franchising to build a fast-growing business.

Franchise power

“You can’t get buying power without a franchise. I couldn’t open my own freight and logistics business and get the rates or buying power Pack & Send offers me. And as the brand grows, that will only improve.

“I have access to a network and a world I wouldn’t have otherwise had an entry to,” she says.

The support Pack & Send provides includes first-class training. As an example, Rebecca is sending four team members to a sales fundamentals course, provided for free.

“This is a small business, and yet I have that support, plus access to online learning and training facilities.”

She advocates taking advantage of the learning opportunities available to franchise partners and is signing up to do an advanced B2B sales program.

“I don’t have any formal training in sales tactics and how to close a sale. It is important to learn how to employ different sales techniques with different personalities,” she says.

Investing in the future

Rebecca has chosen to invest in the team as she has achieved her ambition, creating a multi-site Pack & Send service centre business.

“We chose to invest heavily into this business and I am heavily staffed. My kids are my first priority; our twins are five and our eldest is nearly seven. So I have well-trained staff who can open and close the stores.”

Rebecca’s ambitious plan to grow swiftly as a multi-unit franchise partner in this fast-growing sector is paying off; she is way ahead of her initial target.

“The goal was to have three stores in five years, not in three! I’m moving so fast because I believe this third store will benefit the other two stores. This is a new concept. Laverton is a logistics base; MacKenzie Street in Melbourne City is a traditional service centre. This will be a sales-based store.

“That means we can manage sales for the other two sites in the new store, while these can focus on operations a bit more.

“We’ve hit the benchmarks, and sales targets and we’ve grown our Pack & Send business year on year.

“This is setting us up for the future. We plan on three to five years to build a business and more of a lifestyle,” says Rebecca.