Inkspot is a shopping centre kiosk based ink and toner cartridge retail sales and ink cartridge refilling franchise, with a surrounding geographic business to business territory. In the first eight days of June 2010 we have successfully rolled out three turnkey franchises all of which traded well from day one and with content franchisees.

Our Fountaingate franchisees successfully set a new daily, weekly and monthly sales records for the company, all in their very first month of operation. That’s what hard work delivers. Our Eastland franchisee built up sales volumes equivalent to a 2.5 percent ROI on his franchise, in the two weeks before commencing operation. They are in for a great start.

The business began in 2007 at Southland Shopping Centre and we have been franchising since October 2009.

How many franchisees do you have?
Six with others awaiting rollout.

How many outlets are company-owned stores?
Just one at Southland.

What is your point of difference from your competitors?
We offer cost effective original and generic ink and toner cartridges as well as an ink cartridge refilling service conveniently located where consumers do their weekly shopping. We also offer a very simple and convenient b2b direct to business delivery service. There is no direct competition for our shopping centre bases for what is a very high demand product and service line in our refilling services.

What is your strategy for growth over the next two years?
Complete the development and rollout of our outer metro territories in Melbourne followed by a progressive rollout to all other states. We plan to put a significant dent into these 150 odd outer metro territories plus the rollout of various new inner metro and rural territories.

How do you manage interstate franchisees – through masters or directly?
We are geared to handle both direct and master franchisee managed interstate franchisees.

What is the focus of your marketing/advertising campaign/spend this year?
The current marketing campaigns are focused directly back to our individual franchisees and their territories. For example on the retail side: local broad-sheet marketing, in store promotions specifically developed to support their retail client bases, developing local campaigns to drive new retail clients to their kiosks in the shopping centres and making existing shopping centre customers more aware of the services offered by the local franchisee.

The aim of these retail campaigns is to have all franchisees achieving above their target monthly revenues from their kiosks retail business alone and allowing them to build a more robust, larger and longer term commercial operation.

How do you manage ongoing training – is it face to face or online?
Inkspot provides various operation manual updates online but not training in its purist sense. All training is provided to franchisees and their staff by the franchisors, by other franchisees and by experts specifically hired and trained by the franchisor.

No two territories or franchisees are the same but we find by working with the individuals, their goals and from a base of understanding their customers, that great outcomes can consistently be achieved through personalised training.

What will it cost to set up a franchise in your system?
Allowing for different kiosk designs and sizes in a centre, an Inkspot franchise ill cost in the range of $155,00 to $175,000 for a turnkey operation, stocked and with fully trained franchisee/staff ready to go. (This includes start up capital items such as the bond on the shopping centre lease, insurances an even float money for the till on opening day).