Case Study: How we helped The Wheel Specialist find first-rate franchisees

The Wheel Specialist knows all about adding a shine to things – so it came to Chantry when it came to touching up its franchise recruitment.

The Wheel Specialist knows all about adding a shine to things, giving them a polish, and making them even more attractive.  

Its wheel refurbishment service is internationally famous – prized by celebrities, supercar enthusiasts, and the chap round the corner who’s just kerbed his BMW.  

Yet, just as car aficionados go to The Wheel Specialist for its expertise, The Wheel Specialist isn’t afraid to call in specialist help itself. Jack Murphy, Managing Director of The Wheel Specialist, came to us at Chantry Group to help him recruit franchisees who would buy into his vision and embrace the brand, taking it into even more territories.  

But he didn’t want just anyone.  

Generating thousands of enquiries from people who were vaguely interested but ultimately unsuitable wouldn’t do at all, as it would have been a huge drain on his resources and finances and might not have taken him any further forward.  

Anyone who’s tried to recruit franchisees themselves will recognise that as a common pitfall – a bit like searching through a hundred tons of ore to find that little nugget of gold.  

With his years of experience in franchising, Jack knew exactly the sort of people who would make ideal franchisees.  

The only problem was finding them.  

But while we at Chantry couldn’t refurbish a car wheel to save our lives, we do know an awful lot about franchising – and, more importantly, how to find the right franchisees.  We just needed to convince Jack, Ginny, and the rest of the Head Office team of that. 

“At first, we were hesitant about bringing in Chantry to handle the franchise recruitment side of the business,” he says.  

“We questioned how an external party could ever know our business sufficiently well to drive the marketing and lead-handling we needed.  

“On top of that, we were also weighing up the relative costs of doing it ourselves, in-house, or outsourcing it.”  

Jack’s reservations vanished after the Breakthrough Day we arranged for him and his staff at his own head office.  We spent hours getting under the skin of his company – ultimately getting inside his head – and were able to help Jack, and us, understand exactly who we should be aiming to attract, and how.  

The Wheel Specialist needed marketing support, lead-generation and expertise in Google Ads, and we had vast experience in each of those disciplines in our team.  We were all revved up and ready to go when Covid struck, and everything was put on hold.  But after the first lockdown, we reassessed the situation and decided the time was right to go out and find those potential franchisees for Jack.  The result was a healthy pipeline of potential franchisees, not a stampede of tyre-kickers, and negotiations have gone so well that one franchisee is hoping to open for business after Christmas, and others are not far behind.  

“We’ve been extremely pleased with the service we’ve had so far, with Chantry gaining a true understanding of our needs as franchisors,” says Jack. “George and Nic at Chantry have been excellent, consistently going the extra mile for us at TWS.  

“Not only is George fantastic with prospects, he’s also engrained in the marketing side, giving useful feedback from a prospect’s point of view.  “The same can be said for Paul and the rest of the marketing team, consistently pushing forward for TWS and working with us to ensure we’re constantly reviewing what works and what doesn’t.  

“Although we’ve spent more on paid marketing than previously, we’re getting more for our money by using Chantry than we would have done if we’d brought someone in-house.  “And to match what Chantry provide us with, we’d have had to fill multiple roles.”

As the Managing Director of a brand famous for adding a professional polish to wheels with its diamond-cutting technique, Jack isn’t one to use words like “shine” lightly, which is why we’re particularly proud of his final comment.  “As a client, you can gain access to a team of specialists, all of whom are extremely proficient in their individual areas,” he says, “and that’s where Chantry shines.”  

If you’d like to know how Chantry Group could help you create the right franchisees, give us a call on 020 8017 2115 or email info@chantry.email