2019 Westpac NZ Franchise Awards winners announced

Pukeko Rental Managers is New Zealand’s top franchise system, and Sarith Thong of the Coffee Club Takanini has been named Supreme Franchisee of the Year.

The home-grown Pukeko franchise has 23 franchisees around the country from Whangarei to Nelson. It was founded by David Pearse (pictured below) after some bad experiences which convinced him that “there must be a better way’ to help property owners find good tenants”.

Rather than expensive offices and multi-tier management structures, Pukeko’s home-based franchisees offer a personalised service to a limited number of property owners. “We don’t want to be the biggest, but the best,” says David. Such is the quality of their service, Pukeko Rental Managers guarantees home owners a minimum of 50 weeks’ rental income per year.

The new Westpac Supreme Franchisee of the Year, Sarith Thong and his wife Helen Lim (pictured above) opened The Coffee Club Takanini as a brand new store in 2013. The couple had previously owned a couple of lunch bars, but felt that joining a franchise would give them the backing of a well-known reputable brand and an opportunity to build something bigger. Having achieved success in Takanini, they also took over The Coffee Club outlet at Manukau Supa Centre earlier this year. It’s the first time the Franchisee title has come to Auckland since 2016.

Franchising is now a 27.6 billion dollar industry in this country, with a turnover equivalent to 11 percent of GDP. New Zealand holds the title of the most franchised country in the world. One in 20.4 New Zealanders is employed in the franchise sector. (source: Franchising New Zealand survey 2017 by Massey University Business School and Griffith University).

2019 marked the 25^th year of the Westpac New Zealand Franchise Awards, which are based on criteria for Business Excellence and independently judged by the NZ Business Excellence Foundation. The Awards are organised by the Franchise Association of New Zealand and aim to recognise those franchise systems and individual franchisees who have achieved excellence.

This year’s Awards reflected the wide appeal of franchising throughout the country, with finalists coming from Te Awamutu, Takanini and Timaru; Wellington, Whanganui and Winton, Lower Hutt and the East Cape. The range of business types also reflected the breadth of the franchises available: everything from cafes to cleaners, childcare to convenience stores, bakeries to building maintenance, rental management to shoe repair.

The Awards also recognised the field management staff and service providers who support franchisees nationwide, as well as recognising the community involvement of many franchise brands.

Results – Westpac New Zealand Franchise Awards 2019 winners: