Case Study

Plumbing Bros is Australia’s only nationally franchised whitecollar plumbing business which launched in Western Australia in 2016. Founder James Riddle said the business had aggressive plans for expansion over the next five-to-seven years with a vision to create 75 franchises across the country.

“When Covid struck we had to re-evaluate our expansion plans,” James Riddle said. “Luckily we were classified as an essential service so our work largely continued.

“We were receiving an influx of enquiries about new franchises from people who had lost their jobs that came looking for a new direction. But we had to be strategic about where we moved next, and we had to turn a lot of people down.”

“We implemented safety precautions really early on as restrictions were coming in to keep our staff safe. Using face masks and getting flu shots for our workers, that helped with our marketing that our existing customers especially weren’t reluctant to have us come in to do jobs,” he said.

“There were a lot of people working from home that wanted projects completed that they hadn’t gotten around to so work stayed very steady for us. The concern now is with the slow-down in-house approvals that there will be a lull in the future that we need to factor into our plans.

“South Australia has done very well throughout the pandemic and up until this week remained our number one target for where we would like to expand to next. We currently have five locations in Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and the Gold Coast. Covid is now another major factor in our strategic planning alongside constructions levels and progress in each state.”

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