Wild Cards & Gifts began franchising in 2002 but both directors have experience as franchisees and master franchisees in six other groups over the previous 15 years.

There are 41 Wild Card & Gift stores in Australia and NSW is the franchisor’s major focus for 2010.

Purchasing a Wild franchise has three major cost components. The first is the cost of fit out – typically $150,000. Next is stock for which an investment of about $90,000 is required. Finally the cost of entry: the initial franchise fee of $40,000. With incidentals the total funding required to fully establish a store is on average $300,000.

There is leverage in both purchasing and marketing for franchisees; the business has a retail turnover of $35 million allowing Wild to achieve industry-leading trading terms.

On offer is a full suite of support services for a royalty of three per cent of sales with no fixed marketing levy.

What is the point of difference for the business? The culture and product mix, say directors Sandra and Lawrence Boyle. With regard to our product mix we are the only group to have established a fully integrated point of sale system throughout all stores. This allows us to gather and share information to all stores about top selling lines in real time. This offers all stores a strategic edge over our competition.