Cover Story


First franchise! Tunbridge Wells: a case study in success


It's a “no-brainer” for Ollie and Laurie, Vodafone Business IT Hub’s inaugural franchisees...


Laurie Probert started working for Vodafone in 2016, as a retail employee – first in Tunbridge Wells, before moving to a shop in Kent. Eight years later, he now has six of his own Vodafone franchises around Kent and London, having become one of Vodafone UK’s first-ever retail franchisees. Alongside business partner Ollie Bartlett, the pair are now the first to launch a Vodafone Business IT Hub – back where it started, no less, in Tunbridge Wells – sparking what will eventually become a network of hubs covering the entire UK, run


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Access to the scale, expertise and international recognition that comes with the Vodafone brand name


by IT experts local to each area. This long journey contrasted with the quick decision to get involved upon hearing about the Vodafone Business IT Hub programme – an opportunity that Bartlett now describes as a “no brainer”. “We really saw what [IT Hubs]


could add to our customers,” explains Laurie, “and the value that it was going to add to our own business too. We could obviously see that businesses


around us needed support with IT, while we really wanted to make a difference to those in the local area.” “A lot of the tools we use


would usually only be available to businesses that have 500 or more employees,” adds Ollie. “The size of business that we generally work with just wouldn’t be able to get access to this level of software or tools. Or, if they were, then it would


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