The iconic Clark Rubber brand is renowned for providing Aussies with a diverse range of outdoor and lifestyle products with a foam, rubber and pool focus. And what’s particularly exciting is the addition of a mobile business opportunity.

The Clark Rubber mobile van is a single unit, low-cost franchise – making it a highly competitive business option.

The investment is only $50,000 plus GST. Yet despite the great value of the franchise offer it boasts an unexpectedly premium level of franchisor support.

And it comes with a six month income guarantee offer, which amounts to $1,000 a month. This provides added security and peace of mind for new franchisees taking on a brand new (greenfield) territory.

Jason Charles, national network development manager, says “This income guarantee is available regardless of the income new franchisees source for themselves. Our six month financial commitment enables a franchisee to focus on the all-important aspect of building their business.”

Clark Rubber initiatives

This generous financial boost is just one of several initiatives to assist strong franchise candidates achieve their dreams with Clark Rubber.

“Rather than raising prices to deliver this support we have reduced the purchase price, and our fees. It is important to us to be very transparent. We want our franchisees to be successful, so we want to help get them up and running.”

This year Clark Rubber introduced the $50,000 entry level franchise for a greenfield territory as a commitment to deliver the sharpest offer in the market, says Jason.

He says this is backed up by extensive support from the franchisor team during their initial few weeks. 

Of course it all starts with excellent training. The comprehensive training includes a week of face-to-face training, a week on the road with an experienced pool tech and on-going support right from the beginning.

For a pool services business the technical aspects of the business are key.

On-hand resources make Clark Rubber a good offer for buyers

“Pool service is the priority,” says Jason. “We use the market leading Pool Tracker system which does water testing, invoicing and scheduling, all in one system.”

Mobile van franchisees can also access the comprehensive online learning and development resources available to stores. This includes customer service, sales skills, product and services, and equipment. 

In addition to all the easy-to-access learning, there is on-hand support from the national pool services manager who can deliver guidance on maximising business potential.

Clark Rubber has mapped all the residential pools in Australia in 2020 and assigned exclusive territories to match. So franchisees are guaranteed to have territories with between 1500 and 3000 domestic pools – in some cases, many more. 

“In 2024 we will refresh this project because anecdotally we know there was a significant increase in pool numbers during and just after the pandemic,” says Jason.

For now franchisees can be confident they have a robust database of potential customers’ addresses which fuels their marketing program.

“We provide a structured and well-supported local area marketing plan that takes a highly targeted approach. This is not scatter gun marketing. We know where, who and how to target potential customers.”

A secondary revenue stream

Clark Rubber’s excellent local area marketing plan is designed to help franchisees achieve a really good income with 80 to 100 regular customers, within six to 12 months.

Jason points out that up to 100 customers is a small percentage of potential customers in a territory which might have 3,000 pools. 

Clark Rubber mobile franchisees typically service regular customers fortnightly or monthly. They also have the opportunity to service and repair equipment, and recommend replacement items, which delivers a secondary income stream.

“We aim to help our customers get the use of their pool all year round. This could be with solar heating or blankets. We talk a lot about being solutions business – making people’s life easy,” says Jason.

Keen franchisees can also boost their earnings potential by upskilling.

“Through the Swimming Pool and Spas Association (SPASA) we help franchisees get their Certificate III. They can choose to do Certificate IV, which allows them to service commercial sites such as hotels, council pools and apartment blocks.”

This is a real boon in southern states, where the inherent seasonality of the pool business is mitigated by servicing these commercial pools – effectively becoming a year-round service.

Franchisees can direct their own growth

Clark Rubber’s approach to franchisee growth is to allow each franchise owner to dictate their own expansion. There is the scope to add more vans within one territory if that fits the franchisee’s plan. 

“We are comfortable that they grow as much as they want. Whether that is a single van, or multiple vans that may even lead them to own a shop. We have one franchisee in Broome, who has developed from one van, one territory, to six vans and a single store, specialised in pool service.

“With our support, Clark Rubber mobile van franchisees can shape the business they want, backed by great training, systems, and marketing. There is so much potential, their future is up to them.”