THE BRITISH FRANCHISE ASSOCIATION
THE FUTURE I S BRIGHT. . . THE FUTURE I S FRANCHI SING!
T
he fi nal months of the year are always exceptionally busy here at the BFA as we host the two largest events in our calendar.
BFA Annual Conference sponsored by Constant Contact and Citation and the BFA HSBC UK British Franchise Awards In November the franchising community came together for a chance to not only connect face to face, to network and swap ideas, but also to learn and ultimately to celebrate the successes of the best in our industry, raising the bar for 2026. Like any other business, franchise brands are being constantly challenged, so our conference had two golden threads running through it: data and AI. Our two keynote speakers, Piers Linney, founder of Implement AI and former Dragon on BBC’s Dragons’ Den, and serial entrepreneur Daniel Priestley, both talked about how AI is and will likely be used in businesses now and in the very near future. As Daniel explained, advances in this technology will only become more powerful and accessible: “AI is the worst it will ever be”. The founder of Franscape, Theo Millward, also showed how important data is to businesses and that when correctly gathered and understood, it can be a driving force for improvement in your business.
And the winner is… In the evening, we celebrated the very best in franchising at the BFA HSBC UK British Franchise Awards. The Personal Services sector, which includes domiciliary care, education, pet care, and fi tness brands, swept the boards, taking 66% of the award wins, aligning with the results of our most recent survey1
in October 2024, sponsored
by NIC Local, which revealed that Personal Services had seen growth of 53% since 2018.
Domiciliary care success In extraordinary news, three domiciliary care brands took home the top three Franchisor of
PIP WILKINS Chief executive, The BFA
the Year Established, Expanding, and Emerging awards. Many congratulations to Caremark, GoodOaks Homecare and CareYourWay. The evening also recorded some fabulous
franchisee wins, from Marlene Meyer turning her part-time Mini First Aid business into a full- time success, brothers Scott and Cam Stevenson paving the way to success with their resin-bound surfacing solutions franchise Oltco to McDonald’s franchisee Roger Khoryati building an empire of 11 restaurants and over 800 staff in and around Manchester. For the full list of winners, visit
thebfa.org
The future is bright – the future is franchising No matter what the economy throws at us, franchising rises to the top, fl exible enough to adapt and overcome the peaks and troughs of economic storms. There’s a reason we’ve had a failure rate of less than 6% for over 20 years and we’d encourage anyone thinking of changing careers to consider franchising for their next step. Our role at the BFA is to support this growth, raise standards and continue championing the businesses that make franchising such a resilient and rewarding route. As Scott Stevenson said: “Growing the business with my brother Cam over the past few years has been an incredible journey. This award is a real milestone for us and is just the beginning.”
BUSINESSFRANCHISE.COM 9
1
https://www.thebfa.org/industry-research/
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