Franchise group goes Barking Mad with acquisition
A DOG-SITTING company has been bought for £900,000 by a stock market-listed group that wants to nip away at the franchise market.
Kidderminster-based Franchise Brands, which went public on the Alternative Investment Market this summer, has bought Barking Mad.
The Cumbrian company has 20,000 active customers across 75 franchised territories in the UK. The initial franchise fee is just above £15,000 with 10% of turnover paid as a monthly fee.
Barking Mad’s founder and majority shareholder, Lee Dancy, has agreed to continue to manage the company and will join the Franchise Brands leadership team.
Stephen Hemsley, executive chairman of Franchise Brands, said: “Barking Mad is the leading franchise provider of dog sitting services in the UK and its franchisees benefit from very high levels of customer satisfaction and repeat business.
“The acquisition of Barking Mad fits very well with our stated strategy of acquiring franchise businesses which could benefit from our central services, whilst addressing the same B2C [business to consumer] market as our existing brands.”
Franchise Brands already operates three brands – ChipsAway, Ovenclean and MyHome – through 330 franchisees. It predominantly operates in the UK but has franchisees in 12 countries.
Franchise Brands’ two major shareholders are its co-founders, Saracaens chairman Nigel Wray and Mr Hemsley. The duo previously worked together growing pizza franchise business Domino’s UK.
