Australian women's fitness chain
Contours needed a way to accurately map territories for Its fast-growing base of franchisees. After implementing
MapInfo technology, the market's most comprehensive
location intelligence solution, It has significantly improved the quality and accountability of its site selection processes for franchisees.
Case Study: Contours Company: Fast growing fitness franchise for women on the go Contours is the leading womens' fitness franchise in Australia. With more than 90 franchisees secured and 50 Contours studios already opened since the concept launched in Australia in July 2004, Contours is quickly becoming Australia's fastest growing and largest fitness enterprise - and was listed by leading business publication BRW as the franchise to watch in the next 12 months. The Australian operation is part of a global success story, with more than 500 franchisees operating studios in 23 countries. Contours opens a new studio every two days somewhere in the world.
Challenge: To take the guesswork out of identifying optimal sites and territories for potential franchisees Deciding where to locate a new business is one of the most important investment decisions to be made. No matter how great the concept, selecting the wrong location can mean the difference between success and failure.
When that business is also a franchise, the stakes are even higher. For Contours, that means defining territories that create a level playing field for each franchisee, based on a maximum ratio of one studio per 25,000 head of population.
Contours needs to be able to pinpoint site locations and territory boundaries that will give franchisees a large enough population base to optimise their investment and protect it from cannibalism by any neighbouring studios.
When Contours started offering franchises in Australia, it initially took a less than scientific approach to identifying territories, as David Hundt, Director and CEO of Contours Australia, explained.
"We had a very inexact process of picking up a street directory and thinking 'that looks like so many thousand people'," he said.
"Trying to get the right area involved a lot of guesswork and not much science. Fortunately the first territories we mapped ourselves were in regional areas so the franchise area covered the whole local population anyway."
When it came to the challenge of mapping a territory for a potential franchisee at Penrith in Sydney's heavily populated and sprawling western suburbs, it was time to take a different approach.
"After our fourth studio opening we realised the territories were such an integral part of the business from a franchisee point of view, it was critical we had them mapped as accurately as possible," Hundt said.
"The issue for us is credibility from the franchisees. It's their livelihood. We have to be able to justify and quantify the locations. We have to get it right."
MapInfo offered a solution to Contour's need for location-based intelligence that would help it deliver more accurate pinpointing of sites and territories for franchisees.
21-Aug-2007