Jani-King seeks high calibre partners to grow their own £1m-plus business

Ian Thomas, founder of Jani-King in the UK and Europe, told BusinessesForSale.com why the commercial cleaning company is seeking a thoroughly different type of franchisee – or rather, business partner – and why it is flourishing in a market characterised by high growth and consolidation.

Two years ago this article would have appeared on FranchiseSales.co.uk but Thomas told BusinessForSale.com that Jani-King now expects to find its most suitable business partners from among those searching for a non-franchised business to buy. Due to the growth in its business, Jani-King’s target business partner is altogether more experienced and skilled than those typically searching for a standard-format franchise. 

“In that sense, while we’re no longer a conventional franchise, we’re not dissimilar to major restaurant franchises like McDonald’s, albeit with a key difference,” says Thomas. “The earning potential is similar – a net profit margin of between 10% and 20% is achievable and a £1m plus turnover a basic objective – but you can run a Jani-King business alongside other activities, commercial or otherwise. 

A B2B business like Jani-King is less time-restrictive than many retail businesses with specific opening hours and once the business is established tends to be more about quality than quantity of time invested.”

We want a certain class of individual to join our business, and we can offer them a truly engaging experience, where they help us develop our product rather than simply being a recipient of it

Ian Thomas, Jani-King UK founder

Investment levels for the Jani-King business opportunity range from between £160,000 (including £50,000 liquid capital) and £400,000. As well as speaking to existing franchisees about the merits and challenges of being part of the Jani-King family, prospective business partners are encouraged to scrutinise the financial history of all franchise units.

Thinking big

The business opportunity has evolved to accommodate new approaches to procurement and client-relationship management, which Jani-King had to adopt as soon as it began competing for major national contracts. “People tend to buy a franchise because the system works. You buy a ready-made package and off you go,” explains Thomas, a marketing director for Pepsi when he decided to buy the UK and Ireland master franchise for Jani-King in 1992. 

“But because our business is changing so rapidly I don’t think the standard franchise format works for us anymore. We’ve been franchising for 18 years and we owe our success to it, but our guys are running big businesses with £1m plus revenues. Franchising in the traditional sense has been restricting our ability to compete with the big boys.”

Business partners now enjoy a more dynamic, satisfying role where both demands and rewards are greater.  “We want a certain class of individual to join our business, and we can offer them a truly engaging experience, where they help us develop our product rather than simply being a recipient of it,” says Thomas. “They get a seat at the table.”

And whereas franchisees operate autonomous units, Jani-King’s business partners need to work more as a team. “What you always read in the franchise press is a story about ‘controlling your own destiny’ and ‘being your own boss’, but at Jani-King individuals can’t just plough their own local furrow; they must want to be part of a bigger business and a bigger team.” And they benefit from it.

Quality not quantity

Now, however, Jani-King wants business partners to manage much larger areas, which means fewer franchisees shouldering greater responsibility – and earning more money. Quality, not quantity, is a guiding principle. 

“We’re no longer a scale franchisor; we’re not looking for as many franchisees as possible. We need people who understand the variables to deliver against for the customer.

As the company has grown the pool of franchisees  has consolidated and relationships between the remaining business partners have paradoxically become more like those between small-business co-owners – tight-knit with open, fluid and informal channels of communication. “It’s a bit of a ‘club’ now; we intuitively understand each other, we’re built the same way,” explains Thomas. 

“We’ve got so few franchisees now we’d rather call them partners. We meet every month and really discuss the issues – which was impossible when there were large numbers of people to fit in one room.”

Jani-King has placed greater emphasis on attitude and personal chemistry when recruiting partners. “We need people who think like we do. 

“Again, it’s like a club, because we’re letting existing franchisees have a major input into who joins. The downsides of getting the wrong franchisee now outweigh the upsides of putting the right ones in – so we just can’t make mistakes.”

Corporate experience, particularly in the service industry, adds credibility to the applications of prospective partners. “Ideally we want individuals with a background in Big Business, though I wouldn’t say that’s an absolute must. 

“We have a former MD of a cleaning company bigger than ourselves, so he understands the issues we’re facing as we try to grow further. Now we’re able to say to current and prospective big-brand customers: ‘Tony Vockins, a former managing director of Pall Mall, is an example of the quality of individual that will be working on your account’.”  

That kind of statement boosts Jani King’s credibility – a fundamental requirement of the limited number of  ‘go forward’ business partners that Jani King now expects to recruit.

A background in the cleaning sector is not essential, but a degree of entrepreneurial nous is. “I think a proximity to some kind of entrepreneurial experience is important. We need people who understand the stresses and strains of running a business.”

More for less

Underpinning Jani-King’s recent stellar growth, says Thomas, was the decision “a few years back to start calling ourselves a relationship cleaning company as opposed to a contract cleaning company. In the contract mentality you tend to cite your contract and say: ‘Actually, you’re not paying for that, if want to get more from us you need to pay us more.’ 

“But customers always want more for less and their needs change all the time. As soon as you write a contract it’s wrong. Your customer should feel no hesitation in saying: ‘Look, I know I said that’s what I wanted yesterday, but this is what I want today’.” 

Polished pitches to major brands vindicated the decision to move away from a franchising model, and the ensuing glut of national contracts demanded only that the process be accelerated. “We’re pretty good at the procurement process now. 

“We recently went head-to-head with the two biggest players in the business. We were down to the final three from some 147 companies that went through the tender process,” says Thomas. 

“We were effectively presenting a business model which we’d adopted 18 months earlier – and customers absolutely bought it. That’s my proudest moment since I established Jani-King UK.” 

It was a breakthrough moment for the brand as well as Thomas. “When we got down to the last three I thought ‘well done, but the other two were billion pound companies!’ 

“So I expected to miss out. When we won most of the business, that’s when I realised that we were a major player.” 

Thomas continues: “In our business it’s all about being on a tender list, which in the past we were never on. Now we’re frequently on tender lists; only two days ago a major retail chain asked us to go through a tender process. We’re now seen as a big player rather than a nice little local firm.”

Both company and the sector in which it operates are on an upward trajectory. “It’s a £6bn market, by 2014 projected to be £7bn. It’s also a highly concentrated sector consolidating to fewer and fewer companies – and Jani-King is among those benefiting.”

Global brand

Small wonder given the benefits attendant with being part of the world’s sixth largest franchise network, one boasting 120 regional offices in 20 countries. “The global brand offers so much opportunity,” admits Thomas. 

“Jani-King US recently cleaned the Super Bowl in Dallas and in 2002 they cleaned the Winter Olympic Games in Utah. They also clean huge hospitals. 

“When we target those markets I can tell prospective clients: ‘We’ve cleaned the biggest hospital in the world’ or ‘we’ve cleaned the most expensive stadium in the world’.” 

And overseas Jani-King clients expanding into the UK will naturally look to a company which they know and trust: “We’ve got a great way in getting into certain segments over here simply because there’s already a US relationship. 

“We want to get into the hospital market and our first client could be the US military, cleaning hospitals on their UK airbases. They can only get their cleaning done by an American-registered and certificated firm like Jani-King.”

A burgeoning company in a fast-growing sector with global brand recognition – unsurprisingly, Ian Thomas is bullish about the future of Jani-King post-franchising. “I expect to double this size of the business within the next couple of years. The shackles are off!”