We can’t quite believe it’s that time of year again, but as we close out 2023, we find ourselves reflecting on the last twelve months and another phenomenal year. Yes, we’ve had to navigate some curveballs delivered by the economy which are beyond our control, but overall, with the moving parts we can control… it’s been another year of progress, strong results and one to be proud of for sure!

We’ve made huge strides as we advance through and deliver on our five-year strategy. We’ve welcomed new franchisees, said goodbye to others, progressed further into our 'Hub and Spoke’ journey and added two more operations to our company owned portfolio. We’ve seen franchisees renew their franchise agreements, supported others with MBO deals, won awards (and narrowly missed out on others!). We’ve climbed the charts (second year running as ‘Rising Stars’) of the Elite Franchise Top 100 and celebrated our Nottingham franchisee being awarded the accolade of Great British Franchisee. We’ve remained committed to develop our eco-credentials, worked in partnership with suppliers to create bespoke training videos and created a new local marketing programme to support our franchisees lead generation. We’ve attended numerous industry events and exhibitions, hosted network meetings, organised social gatherings, and supported the development of an industry-wide apprenticeship, along with the small task of building and implementing a bespoke Learning Management System… 

And so, we stop to take a breath and take the time to think about the fantastic dedication, talent, hard-work and determination we’ve seen across our network and Franchise Support team, without whom none of this could be possible.

Hub and Spoke

As we continue on our Hub and Spoke journey to create expansion opportunities for our franchisees, we were delighted to see Kris Bell, owner of Signs Express (Aylesbury) expand into High Wycombe after just a year in the network, Paul Glover, owner of Signs Express (Nottingham) taking on Derby and Signs Express (Bath and Swindon) extended their reach into Salisbury. Alongside this, two of our company owned centres, Signs Express (Twickenham) and Signs Express (Reading) expanded into their neighbouring territories of Battersea and Farnborough! With key learnings under our belt and this model demonstrating profitable business growth, we’re thrilled to have enquiries for further expansion of our network in 2024.

Local Marketing Programme 

Listening to feedback from our franchisees, marketing has been a key topic where additional support has been requested and in January this year, we were excited to launch our Local Marketing Programme. Taking away some of the marketing activity demand from over 50% of our network, our experienced marketeers at the Franchise Support Centre now produce bespoke local marketing social posts, online activity, case studies, website updates and much more on behalf of our franchisees ensuring a consistent and engaging approach to marketing, enabling our franchisees to focus on other key areas of their businesses.  

Learning Management System (LMS)

After a period of scoping, planning and building, in Q3 this year we proudly launched our bespoke online Learning Management platform addressing some of the training and development needs of our network. With fifty courses already available out of the two hundred we will be creating; this central platform is available for all Signs Express centres and their teams. Health and Safety, operations, finance and marketing are just a few of the business functions the system will cover, to enable structured learning and a consistent approach, allowing upskilling opportunities and personal development within our network.     

System Investment

As part of our five-year strategy, another one of our commitments, is to make a significant investment into our customer and order management platform, which would see us introduce a new cloud-based solution for our entire network that improves internal efficiency and customer experience. 

Looking Forward to 2024

And whilst Christmas is just around the corner, our minds here at Signs Express are fully focused on planning for our annual Convention being held on Friday 19 January. As our biggest event of the year, Convention brings together our network of franchisees and their teams along with suppliers from across the industry. With a packed schedule full of demo’s, business updates, networking, industry speakers, franchisee panels, our Signs Express awards and much more, it is set to be a fantastic day ahead of our gala dinner and franchise awards in the evening. 

2023 has been another year of great progress and high output as we continue to work through our forward-thinking five-year strategy. With a fantastic network and phenomenal team around us, we can’t wait to see what 2024 has in store. Keep an eye out for updates throughout next year as we continue in our development journey!