Someone who craves growth potential is going to clean up!
Asking Price: £20,000
Franchisee Role: Owner-Operator (with potential to become a Management Franchise)
Annual Turnover: On request
The Opportunity
Franchises operating way beneath their potential are as rare as hens’ teeth when you’re seeking opportunities for growth – and Cookerburra Darlington is an outstanding example.
The ill-health of its owner means he’s had to reduce operations to as little as two days a week, halt marketing, and literally turn away business despite the strong and ever-present demand.
Apart from restoring the business to a five or six-day-a-week operation, the new owner will inherit an unexplored database of 3,200 previous customers who haven’t been contacted for ages yet, in many cases, are highly likely to use Cookerburra again – as 75% of current customers do.
The strong demand from domestic customers means the current owner never attempted to sell his services to the vast number of local businesses including pubs, clubs, letting agents, landlords, butchers and the Army garrison at Catterick.
And with a quarter of business coming from outside the official territory – an area not covered by Cookerburra’s current franchise network – the purchaser could negotiate with the franchisor to take that on as an additional territory.
The Franchise
Cookerburra is a UK-wide network of 12 franchises, all offering oven-cleaning services to the domestic and commercial markets.
The transparency of Cookerburra’s pricing with no hidden or additional charges is the main reason most customers choose it over its competitors while, in the case of Darlington, there is scope to raise prices that have remained frozen for years.
The service is particularly attractive to householders because almost all of the dirty work is done in the back of the Cookerburra van, leaving only the hob and the shell of the oven to be cleaned in situ.
Currently run as an owner-operator franchise, Darlington Cookerburra could be transformed into a management franchise by the right owner, adding extra cleaning teams and vans to satisfy the strong demand for its services.
Cookerburra pioneered mobile oven cleaning in the UK and is highly respected in the market.
Summary
Merely restoring Cookerburra Darlington to a full-time operation and no longer turning away customers will bring a significant increase in turnover and profitability to the purchaser – but the real opportunity for growth lies in the unexplored database of 3,200 previous customers, many of whom are likely to use the service again, the vast number of local businesses who’ve never been contacted or marketed-to, plus the burgeoning demand for Cookerburra’s services from inside and outside its official territory. Do that, as the saying goes, and the new owner will be cooking on gas.
Enquire Now.
