Water Babies has enjoyed sustained growth since it was launched by founder Paul Thompson in 2002
Water Babies has long prided itself on being one of the quirkier brands in the UK’s franchising sector.
The world’s biggest baby and toddler swimming company has enjoyed sustained growth since it was launched by founder Paul Thompson in 2002. But in June it was recognised as a serious player in UK business, picking up the top prize in the British Franchise Association HSBC Franchisor of the Year Awards.
For Paul it signified a huge landmark: “What I am particularly proud of is the team effort. We have a sense of family and culture that is so strong, “Water Babies is seen as a benchmark of what good and nice look like. That has been built by every franchisee, administrator, teacher and staff member over the last 14 years.
“It is so tangible, so special that others outside our family feel it and want to be part of it. That is why the room erupted when we were announced as the winners of the bfa awards with genuine sincerity. The collective franchising industry really wanted us to win.
“Everyone who has ever had anything to do with our story from the kitchen table to the moment we won the award flashed through my head. Water Babies has given me a lot of proud moments over the years and this was one of the more special ones.”
Never ones for resting on their laurels, within days Paul, managing director Steve Franks and senior management were off to China to attend the opening ceremony for the world’s first purpose built Water Babies Centre in Xi’an.
It marked the fifth new international territory for Water Babies, having already opened for business in Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand and Canada.
With a potentially massive market and its cultural emphasis on child development, China represents a significant opportunity for the company.
Steve was a keynote speaker at a China government organised conference for baby and toddler development in October 2015. The company is widely viewed as a global leader in child development and is working with local partners to roll out Water Babies across China in 2017.
“Our international growth is a hugely exciting time for all our network,” Paul says. “As we establish our brand on the global stage, it enhances our reputation as a premium offering and that can only be good for franchisees working at a local level.
“But it’s just one element of several game changing innovations we have in the pipeline, which will happen in the coming years that will not only strengthen our network’s businesses, but be a really exciting journey for everyone involved.”
Today, there are over 47,000 babies and toddlers swimming each week across the Water Babies network of over 50 franchisees. The network turns over £25 million annually and individual franchises are turning over in excess of £1 million per year.
With further revenue streams of photography (the company captures over 250,000 unique underwater images each year) and products (Water Babies processes 50,000 orders per year), the company provides a solid franchise package.
“We’ve never had a business failure yet,” Paul says. “Indeed, most of our growth has been organic. The vast majority of our franchisees are ex-teachers or clients who fall in love with what we do and want to extend their involvement.”
Even internationally, franchisees in Amsterdam, Wellington, Xi’an and Dublin are all former clients from the UK. The success in Ireland was a critical example of the robustness of the business model.
Paul says: “We launched in Ireland just as the economy crashed in 2009. We feared the worst. But actually it turned out to be our fastest growing franchise, with 1,000 clients in the first year. Today they are our biggest franchise, swimming over 2,500 babies and toddlers each week.
“So we know we can be successful even in the most economically challenging times. Even when consumers compromise on spending, in our experience parents are less likely to compromise with their children.”
The Water Babies network covers the entirety of the UK and Ireland, but opportunities arise on occasions in those territories, as well as overseas. “We have franchises who do 10 years and then look to move on, having made a good lifestyle for themselves,”
Paul says. “Or we have other franchisees who split their territories to enable them to target new areas, giving an opportunity for a new franchisee to tap into an already proven market.
“Our network are also massively supportive of one another. There is a real family feeling among franchisees. Of course, everyone wants to make money - and they do. But they also want to feel they are doing something that is a force for good.
“We help families bond, we help with children’s development and we teach life saving skills.”
As well as the support of fellow franchisees, Water Babies’ head office - known as the Bubble - provides a supportive environment that’s the envy of the franchise world.
Water Babies believes in creating a franchise environment that operates to the highest standards of professional, ethical franchising and in so doing puts the long-term personal welfare and financial success of its franchisees first.
Its business model and associated support structure is designed not only to ensure all franchisees succeed, but that they enjoy their Water Babies journey as they do so.
To achieve this, Water Babies believes there has to be a strong environment of partnership and mutual professional respect, which it fosters not only by having a strong people centric culture that enables people to excel, but also practically through extensive communication systems and involvement in strategic direction.
At head office in Devon, Water Babies has 30 staff to support its network of franchisees, providing advice on everything from human resources, IT, marketing, tax and VAT to training and equipment.
But for Water Babies, building a network of successful franchisees is more than day-to-day support. The company also believes its responsibility is to develop the market by becoming the ‘thought leader’ in its field.
This has allowed it to define the very best standards and ensure that in meeting them Water Babies is creating competitive advantage, which in turn is underpinning the growth of its network.
The quality of these standards has led to Water Babies’ programme being endorsed by the Amateur Swimming Association, while its teachers are the only ones with a nationally recognised diploma in baby swimming.
In October 2015 the company played a significant role in the launching of the British Standards Institute endorsed Baby and Toddler Swimming Teaching Safety Guidelines. Co-authored by Steve Franks, they were officially unveiled at the Houses of Parliament.
Water Babies is a standard bearer for the industry in the UK and, increasingly, overseas. As the leading franchise business in the UK, as recognised by its peers, the company is now ideally placed to continue its growth.