Kitchen facelift franchise Dream Doors posted record sales of £1.3 million in January, an increase of 95 per cent on the £632,000 achieved in the same period last year.

One of the rare retail success stories on the troubled high street, Dream Doors was founded 13 years ago by Gosport-based entrepreneur Troy Tappenden and now boasts a national network of more than 40 franchised showrooms.

“Dream Doors has come a very long way since I started out on my own,” he says. “We have so much strength in depth now, and that’s why we keep breaking records. Our established showrooms, those that have been with us for six and seven years or more, are consistently delivering stellar months. Now, with the new showrooms kicking in and some very high calibre franchisees joining our network in the last 18 months, 2012 is set to be another great year for Dream Doors.”

He adds: “We’re growing at a rate that surprises even me. For the last three years – in the teeth of the biggest global recession in living memory – Dream Doors has grown by an average of 18 percent each year. That’s not just the new showrooms opening, although that is a good indicator of success, but its also through like-for-like sales and our existing showrooms that are performing better and better each year. In 2008 Dream Doors’ network sales were just over £6million. In January 2012 our network sales were more than £1.3million – almost a quarter of what we sold annually just four years ago!”

Gateway Homes, which is soon to celebrate the two-year anniversary of its first franchisee, is pleased to announce that is has appointed two local agents in Gloucestershire. With 36 new franchisee opportunities currently for sale, the addition of Glen and Peter to the family ensures Gateway’s nationwide network is still growing.

Glen has more than 30 years of experience providing IT consultancy services to Fortune 500 companies, and has also worked in the property market since 2004 helping expatriates to buy and sell property in Spain. Peter, Gateway’s other new Gloucestershire franchisee, also has a background in IT and property investment, and together they will use their local expertise to cover the urban centres of Gloucester, Cheltenham, Tewkesbury, Stroud, Cirencester, Dursley and the Forest of Dean.

“As Gloucestershire’s most forward thinking and innovative property consultancy I can offer a range of services that traditional high street property companies don’t or can’t offer,” said Peter. “Working with such a great company as Gateway Homes is a natural extension of what I already do and ensures I can offer the best service to you.”

All Trades Network continue to develop their franchise offering, with several new services being added to the franchisor’s business portfolio. Their 24/7 which was established in early 2011 is now developing into a serious job winner for the network, and continues to attract major interest from our impressive portfolio of clients from both the insurance sector as well as property specialists nationwide.

Eddie Mulqueen, Franchise Manager for All Trades, has commented: “Through a series of innovative product developments, coupled with franchisee ongoing training, our network continues to thrive, with our franchisees gaining new skills and experiences to develop their businesses.” This approach to the current economic recession has certainly shown dividends.

“Over the past 12 months All Trades have now secured a number of insurance related suppliers, who are providing a steady stream of enquires through our service centre, many of which convert to new work orders.”

Eddie further commented: “Our franchise owners are now making serious inroads into the property maintenance sector, which continues to thrive, as more people either choose or need to rent properties, all of which need to be in pristine condition to attract the right tenants. I believe there has never been a better time to join our network.”

To read more and request information on All Trades Network, click here.

Rob Allison, Managing Director of Expense Reduction Analysts, will feature on The Big Hour programme on BBC Radio Solent, to share his thoughts on the issues many businesses are facing and how implementing effective procurement can be beneficial in the current economic climate.

Celebrating their 20th birthday, Expense Reduction Analysts are a global leader in cost, purchase and supplier management. With 150 specialist procurement consultants and a range of well known clients, their expert status is unparalleled by competitors within the industry.

Expense Reduction Analysts’ work with organisations to improve their procurement processes and uncover significant savings over a range of categories without compromising quality, service and purchase control. Expense Reduction Analysts work with a wide range of companies; from not-for-profit organisations through to SMEs and large multi-national corporations. Speaking of the importance of effective procurement, Rob said: “Procurement is somewhat overlooked, compared to other areas of business like sales and marketing. Many organisations are suffering due to these uncertain times, but looking internally at their spends on categories such as print, fleet and insurance could uncover substantial savings to directly improve the bottom line.”

To listen to Rob on the show, tune in to BBC Radio Solent at 12.00 noon on Thursday February 16.

Marking it’s 13th year in business – and its 10th year in franchising – Dream Doors has just launched three new showrooms, all opening their doors in a short two-week period. Now, with outlets stretching along the south coast from Eastbourne to Exeter and as far north as Newcastle and Morecambe, Dream Doors is, by some distance, the UK’s largest kitchen facelift retailer.

Two out of the three new showrooms are in coastal areas, filling a gap in the south that is heavily populated by Dream Doors’ core customer base of over 60s retirees. The Hailsham franchise serves customers from Eastbourne to Brighton while the Worthing showroom picks up customers from Hove through to Chichester. The third new showroom, located between Guildford and Woking in suburban Surrey, is run by newcomers to both Dream Doors and the UK, Gary and Hayley Ashe.

Emigrating from South Africa to the UK in June last year, the couple had found rented accommodation, schools for their two young daughters and embarked on a new business venture within six weeks of landing at Heathrow. Six months later, they and their daughters are settled, and they have a business that has generated £80,000 of sales in the last four weeks.

“It’s been incredible, but not without its fair share of stress,” says Hayley. “We’re so busy right now, busier than we’ve ever been, and Gary is really positive as every other appointment is leading to a sale! We couldn’t have done it without all the help from head office, and from all our neighbouring franchisees. There’s real warmth within Dream Doors, with no competition between franchisees and genuine support from everyone. And we, probably more than others, have really needed that.”

Seamus and Kate Hackett, who opened their showroom in Hailsham on a Friday 13th, have had some good fortune in the last few months. Finding a high-street location, an experienced fitter, and securing the mayor to cut the ribbon has helped them successfully launch their business. But despite the couple being experienced business owners in their own right, including running coffee kiosks on some of London’s busiest underground stations, nothing prepared them for the pace at which their business took off once the public learned about their showroom opening.

Says Seamus: “It’s gone mad in the last few weeks. As soon as people saw the showroom they’ve been flocking in, and we’ve been getting interest in high order value full kitchens, not just facelifts. That’s where we’re going to need some help though, as we’re not full kitchen experts. Well not yet anyway. But that’s what’s great about a franchise, as you certainly aren’t on your own with Dream Doors. The support has been fantastic, exactly what was promised at the beginning. It’s a steep learning curve, but I don’t regret doing this for an instant.”

The third of the new showrooms to open is operated by ex-store manager, Mark Wilks. Located in Worthing, it closes the last remaining territory on the south coast and is just a few miles from Dream Doors own base in Gosport where the brand’s founder and managing director, Troy Tappenden, sold his first kitchen makeover back in 1999. Since then the business has grown to become a network of almost 50 franchisees with annual sales of more than £10 million.

“These are the proudest moments for me,” says Tappenden, “and I will not stop until there is a Dream Doors franchise in every postcode in the UK. What a great advert for franchising too, as there aren’t many businesses growing these days, and especially in the retail sector.”

Gateway Homes is pleased to announce they will soon be moving to a new headquarters in Leeds, as the business has outgrown its current premises. We have acquired some Grade A commercial space in a mixed-use residential and commercial development at Whitehall Waterfront, Riverside Way.

The new 14,000 sq ft of space – considerably more than the 1,600 sq ft we currently occupy – will provide us with all the room we need to meet our ambitious expansion plans. Turnover, staff numbers and profitability have all increased in over the last year, and with our first franchise soon to celebrate its two-year anniversary, we feel this is a great time to underline our achievements by trading up to a much larger headquarters.

Gateway will be moving into the new premises in April/May 2012, putting us in a great position to start the financial year with a bang. We have many more exciting things planned for this year – watch this space!

Since launching its Manchester-based training centre in November 2011, intensive theory and practical driving school 5DAY has proven to be increasingly popular.

What started as a modest operation of just five Driving Instructors, has quickly expanded to a 10 car operation due to customer demand.

5DAY founder, Richard Minkler, is thrilled with how positively the training centre has been received.

“We have pupils from all over the country who come to our course because of its reputation. Combining theory test tuition with driving lessons has been a success and it is required by customers.”

The crippling cost of childcare means that one in four working parents are forced into debt or have to consider leaving work as they cannot afford to pay their childcare costs. The report, published jointly by two charities – the Daycare Trust and Save the Children, comes at a time when childcare costs have never been higher.

Sarah Cressall set up her own business with three children under three and a half years: “The childcare costs where prohibitive for me to go back to work and yet I needed to bring in an income.”

Cressall established The Creation Station to provide educationally based art and crafts experiences for children. “The business system I developed enabled me to bring my three boys to work where they joined in with the classes. I removed all our families childcare costs and could contribute to the our income,” states Cressall. “As my boys have grown, I have also been able to be there for them as I can work flexibly around their needs.”

Due to the demand for alternative family friendly work solutions, Cressall franchised The Creation Station with support from the British Franchise Association. In the past 12 months the number of mums running their own Creation Station franchise has more than doubled, from 20 to 52 franchise owners. The Creation Station announced today they have awarded the Crème de la Crème Business Award which showcase and celebrate the very best in business excellence.

Angela Hood from Tyne and Wear recently gave up her career as a solicitor and has just completed her training to run he own Creation station Franchise. “The cost of childcare and the fact that I had hardly any time with my daughter made me seriously reviewing my situation,” said Hood. “Running my own franchise, with the systems and support in place gives me the opportunity to earn, with no childcare costs. Plus I now have the work life balance I really want so that I can now be there for my daughter.”

The Creation Station supports families looking for alternatives to rising childcare costs and is providing the family activity centre at The National Franchise Exhibition at the NEC on February 24 and 25, and at Olympia on 16 and 17 March. The Creation Station is also proud to be sponsoring the Working Mums Live Exhibition at the Design Centre in London on the 27 March. For more information on the franchise opportunity, please click here.

January saw EnviroVent’s new TV advert featuring ‘Venty’, our new character who solves condensation and mould, aired for the very first time on MORE4.

The TV ad campaign will run from January until the end of February. In January the advert will run once a day during the evening peak time, and in February it will change to off-peak times during the day.

The More4 programs which are scheduled to feature the advert within their commercial break include Come Dine with Me, Grand Designs, Relocation Relocation, Location Location, Beanies Restoration Nightmare and many more programs relating to the home.

The aim of the advert is to generate lots of enquiries for our domestic division team and significantly boost our brand awareness across all sectors.

Last year was a fantastic year for CeX (Complete entertainment eXchange), the revolutionary recycling retailer, whose global store count now tops 169 across three continents. With 20 years of experience, CeX has built a trusted brand that buys and sells a focused yet complimentary range of second hand digital electronics and entertainment products. CeX’s unique approach to the sector has recently been reported as the best place to sell your goods in independent surveys by the Consumers’ Association, Which?, ITV and the BBC.

CeX grew from 126 stores in the UK to 144 in 2011 with franchise stores leaping from 66 to 81 by the end of the year. 2012 looks to be the best year yet with 50 UK stores due to open and strong interest from prospective franchise owners keen to join the success.

CeX also saw considerable expansion internationally, with Spanish operations doubling their store count from five to ten stores, including the region’s first franchise store. US operations also opened new outlets on the East and West Coast, including two in San Francisco.

CeX has also rolled the brand out to new regions with its first Master Franchise in Ireland, which opened in April, and late 2011 saw CeX enter Asia with four stores opening across India. With continued expansion planned for both established and new regions, 2012 is looking to be the busiest year ever for CeX.