BRISBANE: Workplace safety franchisor SafetyQuip building and utilities franchise has recruited former national manager of competitor Protector Alsafe, Wayne Johnson, to join its national team, after nearly 30 years in the safety industry.
Johnson has assumed the position of SafetyQuip national manager in a move he describes as “energising and refreshing”.
According to Johnson there has been tremendous change in the safety supply marketplace over the past few years, and that he had for some time been watching the emergence of SafetyQuip in the small to medium enterprise range of the market.
“A great strength of a SafetyQuip building safety franchise business is that the small to medium end of the safety supply market tends to get low priority service and attention from the big retailers, yet it represents a massive market in a huge growth phase. Franchising is the ideal way to put real people on the ground for this segment, yet to date SafetyQuip is the only franchised safety supply chain in the field,” he says. “Frankly, I think the main reason everything on earth has been franchised but workplace safety is that observers have probably viewed the industry as too complex. But SafetyQuip has persisted and simplified processes and is just as well systemised and supplied as any of the major players.”
Franchisor Gary Shearer says Johnson’s move has provided a morale boost for franchisees, hard on the heels of news that its first franchisee has broken the million-dollar turnover barrier in its first full financial year of trading. The network now has six franchisees with more in the pipeline, and according to Shearer Johnson’s appointment is part of a program to boost national support office resources ahead of the growth curve.
11-Jan-2006