FRANCHISE ALLIANCE LAUNCH NEW PARTNERS, STRUCTURE AND BRANDING

The Franchise Alliance Consulting firm have launched a set of initiatives to continue and cement growth across Australia and New Zealand, following a five-day conference in Perth, Western Australia.

John Brown, new group Chairman and Founder, reported that the company had, over the past two years, developed a new and exciting operating model, providing clients with national support, yet direct contact, with Principals in each state.

"Our corporate structure provides for each state office to be operated by a full and active Partner in our national entity and yet, at the same time, each state operates with financial and operational independence within our professional guidelines," stated John Brown. "This means that we are a national partnership for strategic matters affecting our brand and service model, and yet we think and act locally for state and client affairs." "This unique blend of business and client focus sets us apart from any other firm and is already providing our clients with unparalleled support and business assistance".

In line with this innovative approach to business, Mr Brown proudly announced the new Partners for New South Wales, the ACT and Victoria.

"Phil Blain has been working with us under license for sometime and has now become a full partner in our new national entity, and we are delighted to have him on board." "Phil's unique blend of experience and knowledge of franchising has allowed him to assist many new and existing franchisors to develop and/or improve their franchise systems already." Franchise Alliance has a strong position in Victoria and, with the new business tools recently developed, that position will continue to grow.

"In New South Wales and the ACT we are also delighted to announce that Brian Mayoh of Hill Mayoh - Accountants, and John Longmire, franchisee of Just Cuts, have become full partners for that region. Brian and John will operate the region between them with John focussing his attention firstly on the ACT, whilst Brian will spearhead the NSW activities together with John." "Both Brian and John are longstanding supporters of the Franchise Council of Australia with Brian being a member of the NSW State Executive and John being a current serving Board Member of the FCA. Again, both have been providing consulting services to franchisor and franchisee business owners for many years and this evolution of their sector involvement as strategic advisors will clearly add value to our service proposition to clients".

John Longmire is well known to most people in franchising (together with wife and business partner Monica), for their time with the Just Cuts franchise network and, in particular, for their many awards achieved over the years, culminating in being name FCA Franchisee of the Year in 2000 and Monica being named the 2004 FCA Woman in Franchising Award Winner. Both John and Monica have, alongside their salons, been very active in assisting other business people in developing their businesses and have also provided a varied range of training courses to both franchisees and franchisors.

Mr Brown reinforced the group's commitment to their educational platform which, he states, has been a foundation stone since Franchise Alliance was established in 1990. "We have a series of educational seminars targeting both franchisees and franchisors which we conduct from time to time. These are primarily designed to educate people so as to provide them with current franchise sector knowledge and an ability to understand franchising, before they decide to get involved. This is one way that we can give back to the sector within which we make a living."

"As long standing and major contributors to the sector, we are also committed to our continuing involvement with the Franchise Council of Australia through our participation at State Chapter level. Where possible, we will seek nomination in every state to again 'put back in' to the benefit of the sector".

The release at the recent FCA National Conference on the Gold Coast of the new corporate image for Franchise Alliance has also raised some eyebrows! Seemingly like a series of interlinked wheels or cogs, the new look is bright and colourful and very striking. Brand development agency Baynham Ross in Western Australia, specifically designed the new look to reflect the core cultural beliefs of the group.

Integrity - Trust - Pride - Relationships - Effectiveness

Growing - Fun - United Team - Innovative

John Brown went on to say that, "whilst each of these elements could be seen as clichés', we have adopted them in the design of our new brand image because this is how we work with clients." "Our new look is very different to the previous logo and to us it means many things; but, in particular it means that we deliberately become an intrinsic part of our client's management team and business building process, bringing specialist skills and knowledge that, when merged with theirs, will provide unparalleled outcomes".

Added to this national network, Franchise Alliance has reinforced its strategic alliance with Win Robinson of Franchize Consultants NZ of Auckland, New Zealand. "Win Robinson and his team are very important to us and we have, for many years, been developing our business modules in unison to ensure that the cross Tasman issues are understood, when appropriate for clients. Our belief is that this relationship will enable us to better assist companies from either country to penetrate the other markets."

"In the year 2000 we set the goal to become Australia's leading national firm of franchise consultants and then seek to penetrate the neighbouring regions. This we are close to achieving and, as Chairman, I am delighted with our progress to date. Our goals have now been reset and we plan to establish a similar operating model throughout the Asian region with offices in all major countries. To some this may seem a bold objective. We know we have the business model; we know that clients see us as being very different to our competitors and we know we can deliver value for money and results. To us it seems logical to expand to become the largest firm in the Australasian region and we will now start working towards that.".