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News, views and updates on Canada’s franchise industry Scudamore: “How I built a franchise” Clark Gable’s piano, John Wayne’s bible, a 1954 Martin guitar and a mummified cat are just some of the things found by 1-800-GOT-JUNK haulers.

News, views and updates on Canada’s franchise industry

 

Scudamore: “How I built a franchise”

Clark Gable’s piano, John Wayne’s bible, a 1954 Martin guitar and a mummified cat are just some of the things found by 1-800-GOT-JUNK haulers. Vancouver’s Brian Scudamore also found that clever branding was a route to build a franchise that is set to hit $100 million in revenue this year.

“I was trying to find a way to pay for college. I was at a McDonald’s drive-through and saw this pickup truck in front of that said ‘Mark’s Hauling’ on the side, and I thought I should start hauling junk. It became my ticket to pay for college.

“Eventually I ended up in UBC, and my business was funding my way through college. The Rubbish Boys is what it was called. It wasn’t a new concept. I had taken someone’s idea and reinvented it. There were plenty of people with pickup trucks hauling junk. We professionalized an industry. We added a level of professionalism, we added clean shiny trucks, we added uniforms, branding. It was just a different spin on an industry, which was historically a very fragmented, dirty industry.

“I was studying commerce, and I found I was learning so much more about business by running a business. With one year left to graduate in 1993, I made the bold decision to drop out. By the end of that year of dropping out, I tripled the size of my fleet. I went from one truck to three trucks, and realized I was onto something here.

“In 1994, I fired my entire team. I [had] hired people who weren’t necessarily the clean-cut, professional types that were going to help take my business to the next level. I had people that didn’t care about the business, and I was getting complaints from the customers.

“In 1997-98, I started looking at the franchise model. The E-Myth Revisited inspired me to franchise my business because it teaches you the best businesses in the world are so systematized that every process is set up in such a way that everything’s scalable.

“In 1999, that’s when I brought Paul Guy on board. He was the first franchise partner. He runs a $6 million franchise today [in Toronto]. We changed the name from Rubbish Boys to 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

“It’s less about being in the junk-removal business and more the branding and customer service business. We’ll finish this year at $105 million. We’ve got 130 employees between Vancouver and Toronto. Our target is, by the end of 2016, to be a $200 million business.”

– Courtesy Business in Vancouver

 

Realogy Corp. plans $1B IPO

Franchise giant Realogy Corp., which operates such real estate brands as Century 21 and Coldwell Banker, plans to go public soon according to forms filed under its parent company, Domus Holdings Corp. The filing comes almost six years after the company was taken private by a hedge fund in 2006.

The company is planning to raise up to $1 billion in new stock shares. Domus has not yet released the price or quantity of shares it plans to put up in its initial public offering, according to the Associated Press. 

Realogy is an industry leader that also franchises real estate brands like ERA, Sotheby’s International Realty and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. It boasts about 13,800 offices worldwide. 

Domus hopes that the net proceeds from the IPO’s as well as a plan to move about $2 billion in convertible notes into common stocks will help the company trim at least $3 billion off its debt, which as of March totalled $7.23 billion. Also, the company points to the recovery taking hold in the housing market as a reason for optimism in the coming months. 

“We believe that our business is well positioned to benefit from a sustained recovery in the residential real estate market as a result of our scale, market leadership and the substantial brand equity of our portfolio of brokerage brands,” Domus said.

Burger King bites big into China

Burger King is expanding in China. Big time.

The world’s second-largest hamburger chain says it will open 1,000 restaurants in the country over the next five to seven years. It’s the largest multi-unit development deal in Burger King’s history. There are currently just 63 Burger King restaurants in Asia’s largest country.

Burger King’s China expansion is a joint venture with the Kurdoglu family, which runs 450 Burger King restaurants in Turkey, and private U.S. equity firm Cartesian Capital Group.

 

Hi-Flyer grabs 57 KFCs on Prairies

Hi-Flyer Food (Canada) Inc. has been awarded the franchise rights for 57 KFC and KFC/Taco Bell restaurants in Manitoba and Alberta.

Based out of Calgary, Hi-Flyer is an affiliate of Wholesome Foods Inc., which holds the master franchise rights for 220 KFC locations in the Phillippines.

Last year Priszm LP, the master franchiser of KFC Canada, was placed in bankruptcy protection.

KFC is now owned by Yum! Brands, based in Kentucky.u


This article is from the August 2012 Western Investor.