Q&A: Does Snappy Snaps Franchise in the UK?

If you’d love to start running your own business and a printing franchise sounds right up your street, Snappy Snaps’ franchise opportunities are some of the best in the UK. Read on, and find out how you can go about making an investment with this well-loved photo printing franchise, becoming one of over 120 UK franchisees.

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The printing industry (other than newspapers, which have their own category) is worth £10 billion and still growing [Prodcom]. With Snappy Snaps, photos and profit could combine perfectly to form your dream investment, and you could begin a new professional adventure with the brand, which is undeniably one of the best printing franchise investment opportunities available to you right now.

Does Snappy Snaps franchise in the UK?

Yes, Snappy Snaps does franchise in the UK, and the company is always happy to welcome new franchisees to its network from the Manchester HQ, provided they bring the right amount of capital and the right level of enthusiasm to the table. Plus, Snappy Snaps is a very versatile and open franchisor. If you’re new to the industry and you’d like to run a single unit in a very hands-on capacity, you can. If you have existing retail management experience and you’d like to employ staff from launch, you can do this too.

The Snappy Snaps photo printing story

Developing a successful franchise network has neither been quick or easy. It has taken many years of continuous research, planning and hard work for Snappy Snaps to achieve the level of success that our franchisees now enjoy and benefit from. - Snappy Snaps

Founded in 1983, Snappy Snaps began its life as a photographic processing lab. (Though this service is still offered today, the franchise now offers customers “a whole host of retail services including commercial, interior and personalised printing” and caters for everyone from professional photographers to holiday pic snappers.)

Three trial stores were added in the next three years, and following their great success, the first franchisee team joined Snappy Snaps back in 1987 - Bhupen Lodhia and his brother, Vinod, who still own that first Snappy Snaps franchise and have also added additional branches to their roster in the intervening years.

In 2013, Snappy Snaps became a part of the Timpson Group, and over the years, the franchise has attained numerous awards and accolades, including Pixel Magazine’s “Best Multiple Mini Lab Chain”. Still growing and adding new stores to its empire with each passing year, Snappy Snaps has evolved with the industry and continues to thrive in the present day, now “firmly established as one of the country’s leading retail franchises”.

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>> Read more:

• Hot off the Presses: Break Into the Printing Business With Your Own Franchise
• Printing Services Franchises in the UK

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Start a franchise in the photo printing industry with a Snappy Snaps business

If starting your own branch of Snappy Snaps still hugely appeals (maybe even more) after everything you’ve learned above, and you’d love to kickstart the process of making a career change with a photography franchise like this one, you’ll need to gather answers to the following three questions...

1. How do you go about becoming a Snappy Snaps franchisee?

You don’t need previous experience in the industry to become a franchisee, though you will need to demonstrate that you have a strong employment history and all of the drive, enthusiasm and ambition you’ll need to make your franchise a success. You’ll also need to be ready and willing to connect with the area local to your franchise location, actively engaging in the community. Skills and qualities that Snappy Snaps are particularly on the hunt for in their franchisees include:

• A warm, welcoming and engaging personality (perfect for an ambassador of the Snappy Snaps brand)
• Personal integrity
• Leadership
• People management
• Financial management and acumen
• Constant willingness to learn and grow
• A hands-on attitude, always willing to get stuck in
• Decisiveness and strong performance under pressure

2. How much do you need to invest?

An investment with Snappy Snaps will usually cost you around £123,500 to £140,000. Included in this figure is all that you’d need to launch a fully operational Snappy Snaps franchise location, complete with equipment and store setup. Once you’ve chosen a location, the Snappy Snaps finance team will prepare a full projected profit and loss account and a projected cash flow for this specific site.

In the words of the franchise, “We would expect our new stores to be able to achieve minimum net sales of £200,000 per annum within a reasonable period. This will obviously be dependent on the site and the local trading environment.”

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>> Read more:

• 5 Advantages of Franchising for Young People
• 9 Things to Know Before Becoming a Franchisee
• Mythbusters: Common Misconceptions About What Makes a Successful Franchisee
• 5 Great Reasons to Become a Franchisee
• Franchising 101: Are You Ready to Become a Franchisee?
• Franchising 101: 6 Things to Know Before Becoming a Franchisee

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3. What do you get for your investment?

As a franchisee, our training support is ongoing throughout your business relationship with the brand. [...] You will be constantly stimulated and learning new skills [from day one], as our training, operations and area teams support and guide you through all the stages of opening and running a new and successful business. - Snappy Snaps

In return for an investment with Snappy Snaps, you’ll receive a 10-day comprehensive training programme. This programme will cover the business and its standards/procedures, operational guidelines for your franchise, marketing, merchandising and financial planning.

You’ll then go through two further weeks of in-store training covering all the day-to-day procedures and systems and learning on the job, receiving crucial hands-on experience prior to your launch. Running a Snappy Snaps franchise is a huge time commitment and will require a lot of effort, particularly in the early days, but you’ll be supported every step of the way by the Snappy Snaps franchisor team.

Snappy Snaps printing services are popular across the UK - start your own photo printing franchise with the Snappy Snaps network today!

You should now know all you need to in order to successfully invest with Snappy Snaps - but what if you’ve realised that it’s not quite your cup of tea, or you’re not able to invest the required amount? Never fear! There are plenty of other photography and printing franchise investment options awaiting your exploration, from Minuteman Press to Recognition Express. And, if you really want to go back to the drawing board, you can browse a huge range of franchise opportunities via Point Franchise’s UK franchise directory.