Heritage bakery chain Ferguson Plarre is the first food franchise in Australia to receive a high performance rating under the independent Australian Franchise Rating Scale.

The Victorian-based franchise joins parcel and freight reseller Pack & Send as one of the newest brands in the 11-strong line-up of top performers in franchising.

5-stars for Pack & Send

The service-franchise scored a 5-star rating.

Michael Paul, Pack & Send CEO and founder, said the rating reflects the support and transparency the business is delivering to franchisees. 

“We’ve invested over $5 million in new technology initiatives. There is no other parcel shop retail network in the world that has the depth of technology available to its customers and franchisees,” Paul said.

“We operate a technology business within our operations to develop and support innovative and scalable proprietary technology products so as to provide our franchisees with ecommerce customer solutions, increased sales opportunities, increased productivity and also provide real time data analytics on their business operations”.  

Rating is independent

Franchise and information specialist FRANdata conducts the independent rating assessment. The business introduced the objective rating system in Australia early this year, following a successful US initiative.

The rating scale measures franchise businesses on seven key performance criteria. These include franchisee financial performance, satisfaction, engagement, franchisor training and support, and compliance. The performance outcome metric is a graduated star rating scale up to five stars.

Darryn McAuliffe, CEO of FRANdata, said the review team was particularly impressed with Pack & Send’s range of support and transparency to franchisees. 

“Franchisor support is of great importance to potential franchisees, and in an increasingly digital world there is no doubt that technological innovation is both important for franchisees winning more customers and also equipping the franchisor to provide optimal levels of franchisee support” said McAuliffe. 

“Pack & Send also has very strong stability which gives it the capacity to reinvest in its franchise business system. This is not only attractive to prospective franchisees, but also to lenders, making it easier for franchisees to obtain financing.”

4-stars for Ferguson Plarre

Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses achieved a 4-star rating. CEO and fourth generation baker Steve Plarre said the rating reflects a high level of transparency and overall performance.

“We know that potential franchisees do their do diligence; this is their livelihood and they want their investment to be a sound one,” Plarre said. “Which is why we could not be more proud to be the first Australian food-related franchise system to receive a ‘high-performing’ ranking.”

McAuliffe praised Ferguson Plarre’s franchisee support.

“The review team was particularly impressed with their disciplined and consistent approach to measuring and monitoring franchisee satisfaction and business performance. It certainly wasn’t a ‘set and forget’ mentality. Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses genuinely support and care about the success of their franchisee partners and that shows in the satisfaction results,” he said.

Plarre said the bakery’s roots in the Australian community and economy run deep.

“We have been a family owned and operated business for 118 years and I think that longevity speaks volumes. We want our franchisees’ businesses to endure, as ours has, which is why we offer a royalty-free business model and guide our franchisees every step of the way. 

“In addition to the ‘high performing’ ranking, FRANdata acknowledged Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses’ commitment to our franchisees with some of our strongest scoring areas including Franchisor Training and Support and our investment in lender relations to promote improved finance access for new and existing franchise partners.”