Now proudly 100 per cent Australian owned and operated, Ovenclean Australia is raring to recruit new franchisees. Ovenclean has taken the reins and is eager to expand national operations.

New initiatives include free franchise seminars which have been successful in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney this year. A new cleaning system has also been designed and manufactured exclusively for Ovenclean.

In August 2009 alone, Ovenclean recruited three new franchisees to start in Castle Hill, NSW and North Perth and Canning Vale in WA as a result of franchise seminars and exhibitions. Ovenclean franchisees are from a variety of backgrounds including banking, policing, recruitment, retail and real estate. Many franchisees chose to join the group because of the family-friendly operation and the flexibility the franchise allows – franchisees can choose to work their business around their families if they wish to.

All customer calls from within a franchisee’s area are automatically diverted to the franchisee using the national 1300 OVENCLEAN number; calls are not taken by a call centre. This saves Ovenclean having to charge a lead fee (as many of their competitors do) and gives the franchisee the opportunity to build a rapport with the customers before arriving; this helps them up-sell the jobs and maximise sales.

Customers praise the franchisees and call them back regularly for repeat work; head office takes pride in franchisee’s efforts and publishes their testimonials on the website.

During the past 12 months Ovenclean has been busy tweaking its exclusive system and devising ways to make operations easier so franchisees can work less and earn more. So the company has researched, designed and implemented a new cleaning kit which is available for all franchisees; this new kit has reduced cleaning time and effort resulting in a superior finish. The new cleaning kit includes a new cleaning bath and stand, tested and certified by Austest.

Ovenclean Australia has also now found an Australian manufacturer to make its exclusive products. As a result the price of cleaning solutions have since been reduced, a benefit for all franchisees. Head office’s mission over the next 12 months is to continue to develop the system and franchisees.

Many have been with the franchise group for more than two years and are looking to run multi-vehicle operations within their territories. The company also wants to break into the Victorian market.

Currently there is one franchisee operating in Victoria who is inundated with work.