2024 Survey of New Zealand Franchising
We are proud to have once again sponsored the 2024 Survey of New Zealand Franchising, conducted by Massey University on behalf of the Franchise Association of New Zealand (FANZ). Beyond our sponsorship, we also provided additional support for this important research.
Professor Jonathan Elms and Dr. Simon Moore from Massey University have done an outstanding job with this survey. Which offers deep insights into the structure, strategies, challenges, and opportunities within New Zealand’s franchising sector.
–> Go to FANZ 2024 Survey of New Zealand Franchising
Our thanks also extend to other sponsors who helped make this survey happen, including Westpac, Nexia New Zealand, Stewart Germann Law, Iridium Partners, Laser Plumbing & Electrical, Exceed, Franchise New Zealand Media and FANZ.
The 2024 survey reveals several key findings about the growth and impact of franchising in New Zealand:
- Franchise Sector Turnover: The sector’s revenue has risen by $10.4 billion since the last survey in 2021, reaching an estimated $47.2 billion.
- Franchisors and Units: New Zealand is home to 546 business format franchisors, with 27,295 franchise units operating across the country.
- Employment: More than 114,300 people are employed directly in business format franchising.
- Community Engagement: Nearly 90% of franchises contribute to their communities through financial donations, sponsorships, and other means.
- Technology: The adoption of modern technologies, including artificial intelligence, is becoming essential, with 72% of respondents either using or planning to implement AI.
- Training: All respondents provide initial training for franchisees, with a median training period of 14 days.
- Diversity and Inclusion: Half of the respondents have adopted policies promoting diversity, equity, and inclusivity among both employees and franchisees.
- Regional Distribution: Auckland remains the most popular location for franchise support offices.
Responding franchisors identified challenges to the franchising business model, such as economic concerns (e.g., inflation, recession, changing consumer sentiment, and profitability), labour and recruitment issues (e.g., finding suitable franchisees/employees, wage inflation and labour costs), operational and strategic concerns (e.g., FSO support capacity, quality control, franchisee receptiveness to change), and other concerns (e.g., competition and saturation).
Conversely, key opportunities for the franchising business model covered positive themes such as, expansion and growth channels, leveraging technology, economic improvements, sustainability and ESG, training and development, and innovation.
As I noted yesterday in part of my introduction to the results presentation by Professor Jonathan Elms of Massey University, franchising is ubiquitous, essential and operates in practically every industry (it is all around us).
Franchising is also predominantly made up of small businesses yet is large and growing in contribution to the New Zealand economy and society – in many ways. Not least:
- Franchising provides goods and services in different parts of the country in a way other forms of business often can’t.
- Franchising provides opportunities beyond employment, or where employment opportunities simply don’t exist.
- Franchising creates strong employment.
- Franchising provides considerable training – for new and established franchisees and for their staff
- Franchising contributes strongly to the country’s GDP
Franchising has also proven to be a resilient business organisational form, including delivering for New Zealand through may crises (such as the GFC, earthquakes, COVID-19 and the most recent recessionary times). I also noted how franchising generally needs to be better understood and supported to protect and realise its full potential for franchisors, franchisees and New Zealand.
Contact Franchize Consultants if you’re contemplating franchising a business or would like help with an established franchise network. We’d be very happy to sit down with you to understand your situation and objectives and explain the supporting services we provide. You can also follow us via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Google.
Client Testimonials
We are proud of the work we have undertaken with many leading local,
international and emerging franchise companies in New Zealand.
We engaged Callum Floyd and his team on a number of important and impactful projects over many years. Franchize Consultants’ unique mix of real world experience and practical, pragmatic solutions has meant that they continue to be a valued source of independent advice on outsource arrangements, network forms, business models and analysis.
Our journey in franchising started with franchising introductory courses provided by Franchize Consultants. They assisted us in putting together personalised Field Support and Mentoring solutions for our franchise business Pukeko Rental Managers and our unique franchise model. We are now putting all our field managers through their courses.
The JAE Group has worked closely with Franchize Consultants since 2015 on various initiatives. The knowledge and experience Callum, Graham and the team bring, have strengthened our network, tightened up our standards and challenged our thinking and processes. We would definitely recommend the services Franchize Consultants provide.
We worked with Callum and the Franchize Consultants team to develop a comprehensive business planning tool for our franchise network. It was great to work together and combine their deep franchising knowledge with our business specific understanding. Highly recommend.
Super Liquor has worked with Franchize Consultants to assist with the implementation of a number of key initiatives focussed on delivering value to our franchisees. Amongst these were a complete upgrade of our Operating Manuals, and a franchisee financial benchmarking project. The professionalism and expertise of the Franchize Consultants team has been best in class. Callum and the team have absolutely delivered for SLH and will continue to be actively involved in our business supporting our franchise operations.
On every occasion we have found Callum and his Franchize Consultants team, to be exactly what we have needed. They have always been professional, hard-working, and helpful. Delivering exactly what was promised and have been willing to help as much as they possibly could. Streetwise Coffee