The Franchise Council of Australia celebrated the best of Victorian and Tasmanian franchising over a lunch last Thursday at the FCA VIC/TAS Excellence in Franchising Awards for 2015.

The regional winner of franchise woman of the year, Kate Hopley, started in franchising with her first casual job at McDonalds aged 15. Today she is Spudbar’s operations manager.

“My passion more than anything is helping people find their goals in life and helping them move forward,” said Hopley, who describes her role as “ninety percent building relationships with our current franchisees and our new ones.”

Entering the Awards provided her with a chance to take stock of the role and what she wants to achieve.

“Sometimes when you’re just working every day you don’t stop to reflect,” she said. “It was a really good process to be able to stop and think about where I want to head, where Spudbar was heading and where our franchisees were heading.”

The awards process also proved to be a pleasant surprise for Trish Jones, who was a management accountant for 20 years before becoming a First Class Accounts franchisee in 2010.

“The nomination process forced me to look my business quite in depth and there were a few things in there that I hadn’t really measured over the whole five year period. I was surprised at how well I’d done,” said Trish.

The awards were presented at the Hilton South Wharf in Melbourne at a lunch featuring guest presentations from Retail Zoo CEO, Scott Meneilly, and Olympian Steve Moneghetti AM.

FCA winners

VIC/TAS Multi-Unit Franchisee of the Year: Lisa and John Puglisi, Bakers Delight

VIC/TAS Single Unit Franchisee of the Year, less than two staff: Trish Jones, First Class Accounts, Craigieburn

VIC/TAS Franchise Woman of the Year: Kate Hopley, Spudbar

VIC/TAS Field Manager of the Year: Laxman Bhardwaj, Chocolateria San Churro