Husband and wife team are planning to raise the bars
MARSTON’S pub franchisees Stuart and Honor Adlington started at the Apollo in Hull in February 2015.
Stuart, 54 says: ‘We wanted to work for ourselves, and Honor had always hankered after a pub, so we tried running a local pub for a week. We investigated the various routes into the industry and liked the support offered by the Marston’s franchise.
‘I have retail management experience and Honor had been a domestic supervisor, so we had people management skills, but limited pub experience.
‘We found Marston’s support most useful on the operations side, with ordering, changing barrels, till systems and running the kitchen.’
The couple built a strong team, enabling them to open another site, the Duke of Cumberland in North Ferriby, within a few months. ‘We ultimately hope to take on five Marston’s pubs,’ says Stuart. ‘We would have struggled to do this on our own, but franchising made it achievable.’
Mike Atkins, Marston’s operations manager, says: ‘Stuart and Honor are a great example of the type of franchisees we look for. Their strong business background, transferable skills and dedication, plus our training and support helped them quickly adapt to the pub franchise environment.’ Marston’s pub franchises start at £20,000, plus working capital.
Zulfiquar Haidar and his family opened a Papa John’s pizza restaurant in Glasgow 16 years ago. Now they have four outlets.
Zulfiquar says: ‘The most stressful time is moving from one outlet to two, but with committed managers it gets easier each time. Tasks such as marketing and payroll can be easily adjusted. It helps that the Papa John’s franchise model is based around the family.’ Anthony Round, business development manager at Papa John’s, says: ‘We are recruiting franchisees with an enthusiastic, can-do attitude to run their own Papa John’s store, or multiple units, with the opportunity to add more.’
Papa John’s is offering a franchisee incentive scheme with discounted fees starting at £177,000 to £225,000 plus deals on equipment and marketing.