“Trust is so important to customers when it comes to their kitchens and bathrooms”

Jamie and Sharon Curtis are among some of the newer franchisees and are already making a big name for themselves with excellent sales and brand awareness

Jamie and Sharon Curtis’ dedication to building their new TREND Transformations business and their innovative ideas, make them the perfect example of what has made the brand so successful.

Before joining the franchise, the husband and wife team both enjoyed successful careers working for others; Jamie in a number of senior sales and management roles and Sharon as a teacher. Most of their working lives have been spent in London but they eventually decided the big city wasn’t where they saw their future anymore. Jamie took up his employer’s offer to relocate to his native Bristol area several years ago but when the company downsized and he was given the choice of redundancy or moving back to London, he decided it was time to forge his own path. Like many people, the pandemic gave Jamie and Sharon plenty of time to think about the changes they wanted to make in their lives, as well as the impetus and energy to make those changes happen.

“I knew that if I wanted to be a success without going back to London, I had to make it happen for myself,” said Jamie. “My dad ran his own home improvement business for most of his life and the idea of working for myself has always appealed to me. However, that also means I appreciate just how much hard work is involved, which is why the idea of franchising with Granite & TREND was so attractive. I know all about sales and marketing but nothing about accounts and operations which is where all the support and training of a franchise comes in.”

Jamie and Sharon first approached the Granite & TREND Transformations franchise late in 2020 and didn’t waste any time, despite all the challenges the country was still facing. They opened their new business just a few months later and had their very first installation booked in April 2021. Since then, they have achieved incredible things, breaking through £70,000 in sales in July 2022, exceeding expectations.

Jamie’s father visited the showroom and workshop recently and admitted he was impressed.

“Even though Granite & TREND Transformations was one of the first franchises I looked at, the idea of franchising wasn’t new to me. I’d already seen it work really well for a number of my clients in the past. I had a few options on the table but this franchise was the perfect balance between investment cost and the benefits it could offer. It was also much more in line with the kind of industry I wanted to work in,” explained Jamie.

“Trust is so important to customers when it comes to their kitchens and bathrooms. They are always asking us: how long have you been in business? While we have only been open a little while, when we tell them we have Granite & TREND’s 25-plus years of experience behind us, they know we are a business they can count on.”

The franchise was an easy sell for Jamie but what did his wife and now business partner, Sharon, first make of the opportunity?

“After 20 years in teaching, I had been looking for a change too,” said Sharon. “I’m a lot less of a risk taker than Jamie, so I balanced out some of his enthusiasm with practical concerns. However, it didn’t take long to win me around and it’s been great to get stuck into a new challenge.”

Their new business has continued to go from strength to strength and their latest initiative, a mobile showroom, shows just how ambitious and forward-thinking they are about taking things to the next level.

“There’s a lot of competition out there,” Jamie explained. “With Granite & TREND Transformations behind us, we’ve been able to show that we are doing something different. Not only do all our surfaces have a much greater reputation for being hard-wearing and durable but we also offer the choice of having a new kitchen or bathroom without needing to rip out the old one. That’s usually more affordable but the environmentally-friendly aspect is a big deal for customers these days too.

“I never thought I’d be that guy who would jump around and whoop when we made a big sale, but here we are!”