Elaine and Paul Beale drew up in their four-wheel drive outside 22 Ferndale Avenue, towing a bright blue trailer with red and white lettering. As Aussie Pooch Mobile franchisees whose territory covered four suburbs of Brisbane, Australia, they were having a busy day. It was only 1.00 p.m., and they had already washed and groomed 16 dogs at 12 different houses.
Now they were at their last appointment—a “pooch party” of 10 dogs at Number 22, where five other residents of the street had arranged to have their dogs washed on a biweekly basis.
Prior to their arrival outside the house, there had been ferocious growling and snarling from a fierce-looking Rottweiler.
But when the animal caught sight of the brightly colored trailer, he and two other dogs in the yard bounded forward eagerly to the chain link fence in a flurry of barking and wagging tails.
Throughout the residential areas of Brisbane and in a number of other Australian cities, dogs of all shapes and sizes were being washed and groomed by Aussie Pooch Mobile franchisees.
By 2020, the company had grown to 185 franchisees, and claimed to be “Australia’s premier mobile dog wash and care company.” A key issue facing its managing director, Paul Walters, and members of the management team was how to plan and shape future expansion.
FOUNDING AND EXPANSION
Located in Burpengary, Queensland, just north of Brisbane, Aussie Pooch Mobile Pty. Ltd. (APM) was founded in 1991 by Christine Taylor, then aged 22 ( Exhibit 1 ) . Taylor had learned customer service early, working in her parents’ bait and tackle shop from the age of eight. Growing up in an environment with dogs and horses as pets, she knew she wanted to work with animals and learned dog grooming skills from working in a local salon. At 16, Taylor left school and began her own grooming business on a part-time basis, using a bathtub in the family garage. As she was still too young to drive, her parents would take her to pick up the dogs from their owners. She washed and groomed animals at home and then returned them.
Once Taylor had learned to drive and bought her own car, she decided to take her service to the customers. So she went mobile, creating a trailer in which the dogs could be washed outside their owners’ homes and naming the fledging venture “The Aussie Pooch Mobile.” It soon became a full-time job. Eventually, she found she had more business than she could handle alone, so she hired assistants. The next step was to add a second trailer.
When they were newly married, she and her husband David McNamara ploughed their profits into the purchase of additional trailers and gradually expanded until they had six mobile units.
The idea of franchising came to Taylor after extensive research as a way to provide capital as well as get a dedicated group of small-business people to help expand the business further.
As existing units were converted from employees to franchisee operations, Taylor noticed they quickly became about 20% more profitable. Initially, APM focused on Brisbane and the surrounding region of southeast Queensland.

STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Compare and contrast the tasks involved in recruiting new customers and recruiting new franchisees.
2. From a franchisee’s perspective, what is the advantage offered by belonging to the APM franchise rather than going it alone?
3. In planning for future expansion, what criteria should Paul Walters use to select franchisees as potential multiunit operators?

Transcribed Image Text:

Exhibit 1: Chris Taylor with dogs.