Ambitious corporates keen to harness their business smarts to work for themselves are bringing a fresh dynamic to the Poolwerx franchise.

And the market-leading pool care business is embracing its newest breed of franchise partners’ appetite for growth.

Andrew Walker, chief of franchise development at Poolwerx, explains how the business is changing.

“We’re getting a shift in the type of franchise partners coming in,” Andrew says. “We started as a mobile van opportunity, our candidates simply wanted to operate a mobile business. Over 30 years Poolwerx has moved into retail, and our franchise partners now can have multi-million dollar businesses.

“The quality of candidates and standards has changed, driven primarily by the market presence of the brand, and the success of businesses exceeding $2m in turnover,” he adds.

Multi-million dollar businesses

Andrew reveals the average revenue is $1.6m – that’s the network’s total revenue divided by the number of franchisees.

At the top end, there is a growing cohort of business-savvy franchisees with an income of at least $3m, with some as high as $6.5m.

Now franchisees are buying into the Poolwerx brand after careers as senior corporate executives, in finance, IT and general management.

“Many of our newer franchise partners are in their late 40s or early 50s, undertaking a big career change. They are coming off a six-figure salary and want immediate income,” Andrew explains.

The new breed of franchisees expects to build on the success of existing businesses to achieve rapid growth.

Poolwerx has tapped into the trend, and is now targeting entrepreneurs at different life stages, with clear messages. 

“We are targeting people in their mid-30s, looking for a business to grow over 10 years. Our other target group is the senior corporate who wants a business of their own they can quickly scale,” Andrew says.

The high-flying franchise candidates seek out existing businesses for sale, and are focused on exceeding the business’s current revenue quickly, he says.

“Most buy a business that has one retail store and three or four vans. They can grow up to five stores, through acquiring additional territories and expanding business.

“There’s been a significant increase in the number of franchise partners growing their portfolio through internal mergers and acquisitions internally,” Andrew reveals.

More professional support

Poolwerx has shifted its support levels to suit the demands of its corporate franchisees.

“We’ve got business savvy people as franchise partners; they don’t need coaching on how to maximise their business operation. What they look for is structure, support and branding that they can grow from,” he says. “Now the intricacies of the support is broader, we provide a more professional level of support.”

Eighteen months ago Poolwerx introduced the concept of self-run franchisee peer groups. The peer groups focus on business coaching and growth pathways, and are additional to the support that the franchisor provides.

The top performers, those $3m+ revenue-earners, formed the first cohort.

“It’s very open, they are all self-educating through peer group analysis,” Andrew explains. 

The participants signed confidentiality agreements, and benchmark and analyse each others’ businesses. These are complex operations; for instance, one franchisee might have five stores and 20 mobile technicians.

“They are growing exponentially! It has created a bit of healthy competition among the peer group,” Andrew reveals.

Poolwerx is staggering the introduction of more franchisee peer groups. It will introduce two more levels this year – each typically contains about eight franchisees.

Growth opportunities

Poolwerx based its growth on a career progression business model with a hub and spoke structure, enabling the mobile technician franchisee to upgrade to a retail store, and then employ extra vans.

“Around 10 per cent of our multi-million dollar franchise partners started as a single van operator. Some of our most successful partners started as mobiles 15 years ago and have grown in skill set and ability,” Andrew says.

Poolwerx also supports entrepreneurial franchise buyers interested in a more traditional trajectory: starting small and growing big. People can invest in a single new, exclusive marketing territory – beginning with a mobile business and committing to opening a retail store within two years.

Significant opportunities exist for new stores; Poolwerx has 298 franchise territories in Australia yet only has 143 retail stores.

“It means franchise buyers need access to finance, they need an asset base behind them to fund the growth,” Andrew says.

Scaling the business

Poolwerx has various programs and incentives used regularly by franchisees to assist and support growth, such as acquire an independent acquisition, purchase additional territories or complete a store fitout.

“We’re still doing a lot of acquisitions; over the years we’ve converted about 60 independent pool stores into the Poolwerx brand,” Andrew says. 

It’s a proven way to build a robust business, and a great succession plan for independent store owners.

“We had a new buyer purchase a business off a long-standing franchise partner who was looking to exit. The store had performed well but needed new blood.

“Our new franchise partner brought his energy and enthusiasm and his skill set and lifted revenue by 30 per cent with his sales customer focus and attention to detail,” Andrew reveals.

“Our franchise partners work in the business; they use the strength of the Poolwerx national brand and create a local profile of their own” he says.

These Poolwerx franchisees harness their corporate business skills and forge their own success.

“It’s a great business model for c-suite executives. We get real economies of scale at Poolwerx,” Andrew says.