Plumbing On Demand - Become a Plumber with a ReactFast Plumbing Franchise

This article was published in the Business Franchise magazine October 2005 edition.

Plumbing has risen to the top of the maintenance trade's popularity charts. However, this has presented a problem in that there is a shortage of plumbers. Figures from the Institute of Plumbers have shown that there is likely to be a shortfall of 29,000 plumbers by 2007 - great news if you're a plumbing franchise, as you'll be in high demand - bad news if you've sprung a leak!

Fortunately, ReactFast's growing plumbing franchise base is there to deal with the problem. In ReactFast's 50 strong call centre, the team answers more than 10 000 inbound calls a week - half of these for basic plumbing jobs. The company's franchise business leader, Andrew Quail, explains why the move to franchising has been necessary. 'Like everyone else in the UK, we couldn't find the plumbers to do the work that we were generating. We've grown to a £15 million turnover business in five years, but to take it to the next level, ReactFast needed a nationwide cadre of dedicated business people who would provide plumbing services to customers. Hence we turned to franchising to cope with the demand.'

The company generates high levels of work for its exciting franchisees, providing them with a solid base on which to build the business. The first ReactFast franchisee was Geoff Lynn, a former motorcycle outlet sales manager. He covers the Luton area. He recalls that his first week set the pace for what was to come. 'In my first week, they passed me 26 jobs, and I earned more than £1,000' he says. 'My feet barely touched the ground. I get the occasional quiet day, which is actually a bit of relief seeing that most of the time they have jobs queued up waiting for me, and I'm going from job to job.'

To cope with being in such high demand, franchisees are given a comprehensive training programme. ReactFast has its own training centre where every franchisee will undergo a seven week course to gain two City and Guilds awards and the BPEC (British Plumbing Employers' Council) Water Regulations certificate. ReactFasts' technical training manager, Garry Lee, says that the course is intensive, but is exactly what is required.

'Being a bespoke training programme, we can ensure it equips our franchisees to deal with 95 per cent of the jobs they will meet out in the field'.

Southampton franchisee, Shaun Fitzgerald, originally wondered if the course would be right for him 'as a time-served plumber'. However, with the high standard of training, Shaun's fears were quashed. 'I have learned alot. All of the business sessions, marketing and bookkeeping and so on, are invaluable in starting out in my own business. Now I feel equipped to drive my business forward in every sense.'

Apart from the training course, ReactFast boasts a first rate support system. Franchise recruitment manager, the Franchise Sales Team says 'Our franchise support system includes placing the advertisements that drive the call-rate, a telesales team to answer the phones 24/7 and a further 45 employees allocating jobs to franchisees and handling the customers.' In addition, the accounts department takes care of the financial administration on behalf of franchisees (including banking, division of the money and credit control), and there is almost unlimited technical support from training managers, regional managers, technical specialists and a team of 65 Corgi-accredited heating engineers. 'I really believe our support is second to none' says Andy.

The comprehensive ReactFast package also features a fully equipped van fitted with a commercial jetting machine, a starter pack of stock, IT equipment including a laptop computer, fax and digital camera. New franchisees will have their very own territory with exclusive 0800 and local phone numbers.

Potential franchisees will need to invest a minimum of £11,000 liquid capital into the new business. However, ReactFast has put in place business loan packages with the major banks, which will loan the balance of the money to suitable candidates. The growth plan for the ReactFast Plumbing Franchise is set to escalate at the beginning of 2006 as the Franchise Sales Team explains. 'We'll start 2006 with around 35 franchisees trading, and maybe another 50 to 60 territories still available. In about two years time, all the territories will have been awarded. From then on, the growth will come from the franchisees growing their businesses into multi-managed van operations.'

Andrew Quail will celebrate his 25th year in franchising next year, and during that time, he says that he has not seen a franchise opportunity that he would rate more highly than ReactFast. 'Market demand, training and technical support, financial opportunity, low-cost entry, solid support..... If having your own plumbing business is what you want, you could not even imagine a better proposition than ReactFast', he says.

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