The ice drink Slush Puppie business has signed up its first Australian franchisees after launching its national expansion program, involving the creation of 90 individual franchise regions, just over two months ago.

Richard and Jo Ede have bought both of the Gold Coast franchise territories and will now operate the north and south regions. “We are absolutely thrilled with our new business,” said Richard. “One of the great attractions with the Slush Puppie franchise was the fact that we could own and operate our own business and work together. It suits our lifestyle and as the business grows, we will look at employing more staff,” he said.

The Stafford Group owns the Slush Puppie franchise in Australasia and operates one of only six licensed Slush Puppie manufacturing plants in the world.

Murray Stafford said finalizing the first franchisee partnership is a great milestone for the company. “We are thrilled to have Richard and Jo on board as our first franchisees,” he said.

Stafford said the individual franchises being offered included a mix of established freezers in prime locations and a minimum of 10 new freezers per region which can be established in new locations.

“The Slush Puppie business model is very simple and involves the manufacture of a concentrated product and maintaining a fleet of freezers that are placed in high volume retail outlets. Franchisees will own and service those freezers in their franchise territories and outlets where they are located, such as convenience stores, who then sell the product to the end consumer. Those retailers purchase the concentrate product from their local franchisee.”