Forget your well-known franchise businesses like McDonald’s or Gloria Jeans, there’s a new type of franchise waltzing its way onto the scene.

Businesses on a whole are innovating more and more, and franchising is no exception. Sydney-based couple Janelle and Elvio Gonzalez typify the franchise business innovation trend.

As the founders of Blue Toro – a franchise of mobile mechanics with a promise to end the rip-offs and rorts endemic that are so widely commonplace in the automotive industry.

Blue Toro started in July 2013 and there are now four franchisees with another four in the pipeline, with a goal of 11 by the end of this year. Blue Toro’s revenue grew 1000 per cent last year.

Blue Toro has grand plans, according to co-founder Janelle Gonzalez, with a vision to be as big as the Jim’s Group.

“We’re scaling this out to be a national franchise. We certainly want to be known within the mobile mechanic space, but our goal is to be the automotive equivalent of the Jim’s franchise so, while Jim does everything around the house, we want to do everything automotive. We’ll eventually move into motorbikes, trucks, fork lifts, caravans,” she told BRW.

General manager of the Franchise Council of Australia Kym De Britt told BRW that retail is still the mainstay of franchising but unlikely models based on highly specialised services are increasing in line with economic trends.

“Business models are becoming quirkier in franchising because they’re becoming quirkier elsewhere in society. The most successful franchises are the ones that are successful as a standalone business and the franchisor is trying to expand the business so something can look like it should have a slim market.

“But it’s been doing well for a number of years and the model is proven. One that comes to mind that has been very successful here and expanded to the US is a gutter cleaning service called Gutter-Vac,” DE Britt said.