CEO of convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, Warren Wilmot, talks about what it means to be defined as an established franchise.

I am not actually in love with the term, or 7-Eleven’s classification as being established, says Warren Wilmot.

7-Eleven was named Franchisor of the Year for 2008 and Established Franchisor of the Year 2009 in revised categories at the Franchise Council of Australia awards.

If it means the business is robust and thriving after 33 years in operation, has a significant turnover (about $1.3 billion per annum) and continues to grow and expand, then the classification is appropriate. This is hardly a fly by night business.

If it also means emerging franchises are smaller and newer, and should be assessed for quality on a slightly different framework then again I can live with the definition.

He believes a criterion for established franchising is probably easy to define in terms of years of operation, number of outlets and profitability.

But I consider our business to be young, vibrant and growing, pursuing many opportunities in terms of products, range, franchisee management and customer experience. In fact I have joked that we should still enter for an award of Emerging Franchisor of the Year.

Established can imply, mature, staid, fixed, finished and settled. But 7-Eleven does not consider itself to be any of those things.

Perhaps we have convinced the judges to award us the Established Franchisor of the Year for the last two years, because while we have operated for decades and are of significant size, we still act and think very much like a new system with many opportunities in front of us to pursue.