Ableworld highlights franchisee success

Ableworld has been shining the spotlight on one of its most successful franchisee duos, Jeff and Steven Newman.

Ableworld has been showing potential franchisees what it’s possible to achieve as part of the mobility franchise by sharing the story of one of its most successful franchises.

Ableworld Southampton has been run for more than five years by director Jeff Newman and his son Steven. Despite the pair being completely new to the mobility industry when they began their franchising journey, their store has seen tremendous growth in its short life and now turns over in excess of £1m annually thanks to their hard work. The dedicated duo has spent time and money improving their store to make it the best it can be, adding features including a specialist stairlift showroom area with more than 10 models for customers to try out and a training area for local occupational therapists. Jeff said that the success of his first store has only made his aspirations even bigger and has encouraged him to begin branching out.

“We can’t think of any limit and we only limit ourselves. This is our first [branch] and it’s been amazing and has exceeded our expectations. We’ve put a lot of hard work into it and now we’ve got the base. It’s really important to get the infrastructure right, the right staff, the systems and the vans. We’re up to a level now where we can start looking at other places to launch. A second, a third, a fourth.”

Managing Director of Ableworld UK, Mike Williams, praised the pair for the work they’ve put into building a “strong foundation” and said that their upcoming strategy for targeting the local council and NHS with their products was a fantastic one.

Explaining why the senior care franchise's model was a huge benefit to Ableworld rather than a limitation, Williams said:

“One of the things about franchise businesses is that, if [Southampton] was our store and we had a manager down here, fine, it might be OK, but it’s much better for a franchisee to really get into the local community and get involved. They care about things in the local areas. It’s their business, they have ownership of it and so it drives innovation.”

Going forward, the pair say that they’re concentrating on marketing their business even more, hoping to increase the already impressive 40% of business that comes from word-of-mouth recommendations.