South Australia
Joined Cartridge World (CW) in April 2002. Prior to CW, I had my own Finance & Mortgage Origination business in Adelaide for 20 years.
On joining I moved to the US (San Francisco ) to develop a distribution hub & build the necessary support infrastructure required prior to appointing any Master Franchises throughout the US. At the same time, I mentored the newly appointed Canadian Master Franchisee – spending a week each month in Vancouver. I lived in San Francisco for just short of 12 months – during this time I travelled all over the US awarding Master Franchise Rights & attending numerous franchise expos and building a large network of contacts at the same time. The decision to return to Australia was based on CW Head Office in Adelaide having not developed a Master Training program for the International Masters. I then appointed a CEO to our US operations & moved back to Adelaide to set up a Master Training program for all the US Masters who came to Adelaide. We eventually appointed & trained approximately 20 Master Franchisees in Adelaide… some are still in the system today.
Once the US was established our next step was to expand the base throughout Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and over the next couple of years I travelled extensively awarding, training & mentoring Master Franchisees in Greece, India, the Middle East, Turkey/Kenya, South Africa, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines & Indonesia. I also travelled into Korea, Thailand & Japan interviewing numerous potentials but not awarding a Master there. During this time I gained in-depth knowledge of the franchise laws & legal requirements throughout the region.
Cartridge World was sold in 2007 (1542 stores, 46 Master Franchisees) to the Wolseley Group (Private Equity out of Sydney) I retained my position with the group & then became the Managing Director of Cartridge World for the Asia Pacific, The Middle East & Africa. Cartridge World had three Managing Directors at this time – one located in the UK, one in the US & myself in Australia (we met in each region on a three-month rotation). My role under Wolseley expanded into the Global Master Franchise Development Director assisting every Master Globally in building their operation, appointing & training new Masters as well as removing underperforming Masters. From this, I built an International Master Franchise Operations Manual in an attempt to maintain consistency across the Group.
I have remained in close contact with all my Masters & have close associations with numerous International Franchise sales consultants, lawyers & have made many close friendships.
I resigned my position with CW in 2010 & travelled to the UK spending three months there assisting with the International development of Franchise Development Services (FDS). During this time, I learnt about many systems used in the UK to build franchise models & also met with numerous International systems that were considering venturing into the Aussie market. Two that I know have made it … CEX & Tax Assist are now in Australia. I met with numerous International businesses that were considering venturing into the Australian marketplace. I have used his extensive knowledge and experience as a Consultant to assist businesses to build their own successful franchise systems.
I am now proudly on the FINN Group team and look forward to using my extensive knowledge and experience as a Consultant and Broker to assist businesses to sell or buy a business or build their own successful Franchise system.
