Pirtek has a reason to celebrate as its opens the doors to its 100th franchise location. There are a further four sites across the country set to open over the next few months.
Twenty-nine year-old Jack Fuller is heading up the Albany business, which has been targeted as a key growth area, and sees plenty of potential in the area.
“We identified that many businesses in the region were looking for an alternative supplier for their hose and hydraulic equipment and servicing so we decided to fill the gap in the market and early feedback has been very encouraging,” he said.
The business supplies product lines to sectors including medical, hospitality, automotive, manufacturing, transport, marine, forestry, power, defence, engineering, oil, gas and mining.
“Pirtek is obviously a leader in the field and it made sense to explore the possibilities of establishing a franchise in Albany,” he said.
“There are so many terrific stories of Pirtek franchises being handed to the next generation and while that is sometime off for our children, it would be great to think that we can build our business so we have that option in a few years time.”
Mark Devitt, chief operating officer at Pirtek, said “We have been proud to open everyone of our locations since our first at Rydalmere in Western Sydney in 1980, but hitting the 100 mark is a significant milestone in the company’s 41-year history.”
This mega achievement points to the brand’s strength and resilience, even through tough times like Covid-19, he said.
“While the focus is on the new Albany franchise because it is the 100th, everyone one of our franchisees can take pride in the knowledge that they have all played a role in helping us achieve such a significant milestone.
“We are delighted to welcome Jack Fuller as our new franchisee of Pirtek Albany and wish him every success. The same success that the vast majority of our franchisees, several of them second generational, have enjoyed over many years.
“The Western Australian franchise group now has the newest franchisee and our second longest-serving franchisees Mark and Kerry Lydiard, just up the road in Fremantle,” said Mark.
Successful sporting sponsorships have helped to build the brand over the years – from local baseball in the early 1980s to naming rights sponsorship of the Parramatta Eels NRL team and the New Zealand national rugby league team.
The company has also had a long association with motorsport, winning the Bathurst 1000 in 1998 and several Supercar championships.
Pirtek started out in Sydney in 1980 and it remains a family-owned firm. Today the business has more than 430 service and supply centres and 1750 mobile service units servicing more than 200,000 customers with more than 13,000 product lines.
It operates in 24 countries, including the US. In fact the Pirtek US division will be celebrating its own landmark franchise opening when a Wisconsin location is unveiled soon. This will mark the 100th franchise for the US business, which is now run by the founder Peter Duncan’s son.