US Sign And Display Franchise Takes Europe By Storm

Fastsigns, the leading US sign and display franchise takes on a master franchisee as part of its European expansion programme.

The sign and display franchise headquartered in the US has announced its expansion plans in the UK through a deal signed up with Malta-based master franchisee Famalco Group. Fastsigns new master franchisee will be rolling out 16 locations – two in Malta, six in Greece and eight in Italy. Plans for further expansion are expected to spawn in the next eight to ten years.

In a recent interview with PrintWeek, Fastsigns chief executive, Catherine Monson said: “Our criteria is to develop one or two Fastsigns, prove they are very capable at being successful and then sub-franchise.”

“Once they have demonstrated with their own Fastsigns, and we’ve seen they are making strong sales gains and have appropriate profitability and good margins, then we know they are capable of teaching sub-franchisees how to run their businesses successfully.”

Fastsigns had been on the lookout for the right master franchisee partnership for several months when they became particularly impressed with Famalco’s track record as master franchisee for franchise giants such as Domino’s Pizza and Harley Davidson. Monson added: “Finding the right company that has franchising experience or extensive sign and printing experience is more important than saying ‘We’re going to open in Germany, France or Belgium’.”

Fastsigns already has 661 locations across eight countries and aims for European sales in 2018 to include £12m in the UK. The UK operation accounts for £9m of Fastsign’s overall sales and it is operated directly by Fastsigns under UK managing director John Davies. Fastsigns UK will be opening the doors to a 23rd franchise in Canterbury next week, with four to six more operations scheduled to open in 2018.

Fastsigns operation in Hammersmith recently became the first Fastsigns UK to earn an Idealliance qualification and the Watford branch has expanded to larger premises. Monson concluded: “We’re very excited to expand into three additional countries. We’re very excited about continued progress here in the UK and we think that progress begets more progress, momentum begets more momentum, so we’re quite excited about future growth throughout Europe."