Franchise group confident following good first half of trading

Franchise Brands, the Macclesfield-based multi-brand franchise business, has had a good start to its first quarter of the new fiscal year, shareholders will be told today.

The group is holding its annual general meeting this morning and executive chairman, Stephen Hemsley, has provided a trading update for the meeting.

He said the existing group, prior to the £212m acquisition of Pirtek Europe, which is expected to complete on April 21, has had a good start to 2023.

He said: “The acquisition of Pirtek Europe will further transform the group by diversifying the range of emergency response services provided and our geographical reach and customer base.

“This will provide greater resilience to earnings and provide a platform for the acceleration in the growth of our business. We, therefore, look forward to the rest of 2023 and beyond with great confidence.”

He added: “Filta in North America has continued to perform robustly in Q1 with franchise and equipment sales driving growth.

“Revenue from the sale of used cooking oil for biodiesel production was in line with expectations, with increased volumes compensating for the anticipated lower price of used oil. The outlook for used oil revenues remains unchanged.”

And he said, as expected, franchisee recruitment in the B2C division has improved in Q1 compared with Q4 2022.

But he added: “ChipsAway, the largest brand in the division, is now back to the same level as achieved in Q1 2022. The level of attrition has also reduced to below the five-year average. However, as anticipated, the loss of franchisees in 2022 and increased overheads generally have impacted income in Q1 2023.”