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2012 : A Year of Challenge and Opportunity


Brian Smart, director general of the British Franchise Association, lays out the regulatory body’s vision for the year ahead and reiterates the bfa’s core values


franchisors in membership, at least an equal record of quality control in membership standards as our French colleagues – and we and the French are a stride or two ahead of the rest – and a better income record and balance sheet performance. Is being best in class enough? Pride, as they say, comes before a fall, but I don’t see anything


T 08 | www.franchisornews.co.uk


he British Franchise Association (bfa) is the most successful franchise association in Europe. We have more members, a significantly higher proportion of the country’s


wrong with pride. I would like to think that every member of staff at the bfa takes pride in what they do. We do make a difference. We do apply the standards the industry agrees without fear or favour, we do provide an extensive range of networking and know-how sharing events for our members, we do punch well above our weight in the press coverage that we secure for good franchising – including more than a million hits a month on our website. We also deliver educational information


and workshops to such a wide, and high- quality, audience that around a half of all new


franchisees have made contact with the bfa before setting up in business. Despite the knowledge of our achievements


we are not about to rest on our laurels. It may not in fact be pride that precedes the fall, but complacency. And that is something we are careful to guard against.


The Challenge of Franchisee Membership Last year, after more than a decade of preparatory measures and persuasion, the community of bfa-member franchisors agreed to begin the process of opening the bfa to a real


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