#Wow Factor Brought To North Wales And Shropshire With New A-Star Sports Franchisee

The latest franchisee in award-winning young company A-Star Sports is certainly starting his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the WOW factor - Adrian Dunn`s mission is to cover the territory of Wrexham, Oswestry and Whitchurch.

The go-ahead former farmer and youth worker is ready to bring the A-Star offering to hundreds of regular young clients a week in North Wales and Shropshire, with multi-sports coaching for children as young as two years old and up to 10 years old.

Dunn, who is delighted to be part of A-Star Sports` remarkable success, is already looking to take on another franchise in the company, which has been named in the prestigious Startups 100 list, the most coveted accolade for the UK`s business newcomers.

For the 32-year-old born in Liverpool and now living in Wrexham, working closely with A-Star co-founders Gary and Sharon Bassett, who run the neighbouring franchise in Cheshire, the opportunity is a natural progression from his successful career as a youth worker.

But Dunn started out his working life in an entirely different sphere - working on some of the highly-productive dairy farms for which the region is renowned. He said: I worked on farms as a lad and I always had an affinity with the life. So it seemed the obvious choice when I left school at 16 to go to the local agricultural college, where I spent three years before launching on a career as a dairyman in Cheshire, looking after large herds of cattle.

It was a good life and the experience allowed me to travel extensively, taking jobs on farms in Australia and New Zealand and seeing the South Seas and America. However, life was hard - up at 5am and not finishing until 7pm and working almost every day, including Christmas and New Year. The animals have to be looked after all the time - you can`t just leave them.

It was Dunn`s involvement with the Young Farmers (YF) which pointed him towards working with children. He helped out with the `little ones` at YF functions, realised he had an aptitude for the work and this led him to start doing youth support work with the council. He supported the running of youth clubs, delivered risk awareness sessions and assisted in the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme with youngsters.

He took up youth support work and running sports activities full-time after being badly injured at work by a cow. He went back to university in Wrexham to do a degree and then started looking at franchise businesses in order to realise his dream of working for himself.

Dunn commented: When I started researching A-Star, I found that, unusually, the positives significantly outweighed the negatives. Gary and Sharon are excellent mentors and the number of awards they have won in such a short time is testament to the worth of the business.

He will initially run classes in St Margaret`s Church and Community Hall, Garden Village and Kenyon Hall, Holt, both in Wrexham, before branching out into the other towns and villages in his franchise area on the England-Wales border.

He continued: My ambition is to grow in the first year, bringing on new venues and high-quality coaches. I want to build the area and make sure the business is sustainable and then I`d like to think about taking on another franchise and growing that as well.

I have the WOW factor already in this franchise. Now I am determined to bring it to other children in new areas. As the parent of a two year old myself, I am very passionate about children getting involved in sport from a young age and keeping them active and healthy.

A-Star Sports is designed to make sport fun and accessible for children, and its peer-reviewed programme includes weekly classes, parties and holiday club places, as well as regular sessions in nurseries, pre-schools and playgroups, which are attracting thousands of attendees per week.