How has the franchise industry performed during the past 12 months?

The franchise sector continues to grow and it would appear that more and more people are becoming aware of it, both as a way of growing an existing business and of starting their own. Evidence of this comes from our own business, The Franchising Centre, which had twice as many enquiries from businesses wanting to franchise their existing operations as we did in the previous 12-month period, and from the annual NatWest/British Franchise Association survey of franchising, which shows many areas in which the franchise sector is considerably outperforming the UK economy as a whole.While UK GDP grew by 0.7 per cent in 2011, the franchise industry increased by eight per cent as turnover rose to £13.4 billion. Also, in contrast to a UK-wide rise in unemployment of 180,000 in 2011, a total of 73,000 jobs were created in the franchise industry. This comes as the number of franchising systems operating across the UK increased to 929, with 40,100 franchise business units employing 594,000 staff. The number of larger franchise units employing more than 11 staff increased by 30 per cent in the past year, according to the survey.However, there is a caveat in that we are seeing evidence of dissatisfaction among the early franchisees of some new franchisors, who had not taken the right advice on structuring their franchise offer and had not been properly trained in effective recruitment processes.