Case Study - Gary Andrew

Gary Andrew started his independent carpet cleaning business six years ago in Devon. A successful businessman in his own right, Gary wanted to achieve greater growth and has this to say about his subsequent move into franchising with the Chem-Dry Brand.

Q. What did you do before you joined Chem-Dry?

I have been in the carpet trade for over 16 years, starting off as a carpet fitter, but soon realised that it was not the sort of job that you could do for the rest of your life as it was very hard on the knees and your back. So I tried to diversify into carpet cleaning. This worked very well with the fitting; you were already in the customer's house and mention the carpet cleaning and would very often get a sale.

Six years ago I decided to quit fitting and go full-time into carpet cleaning, and have never looked back.

Q. What made you make the move to be a franchisee?

I was quite happy as an independent, but I wanted to expand into Fire and Flood Restoration. I would pick up the occasional flood job from existing customers but that was about it. I wrote numerous letters to loss adjusters locally but never got any response back. I then joined up with a competitor of Chem-Dry, they gave me the chance to get involved with the insurance work, and I was very grateful, but the jobs were always few and far between.

Q. Why Chem-Dry?

Now I had got the taste for Fire and Flood Restoration I wanted more, so I decided to start looking at franchises. That is when I came across Chem-Dry, and from the very first phone call, I built up confidence that this was the professional organisation that I wanted to be part of. After visiting the call centre in Beverley I could see why Chem-Dry is the UK's leader. I received 12 insurance jobs in the first 12 days, and at this stage I knew that we had made the right decision.

Q. What changes came from joining the Chem-Dry franchise?

Since joining Chem-Dry I have found that my business has more of a professional approach, this is due to the fact that the sales literature and brochures are helping me win more jobs because the customer has great confidence that they are dealing with a professional company. I have also had people call me that have moved into Cornwall, and say that Chem-Dry previously cleaned their carpets and they would have nobody else. The most recent one was a couple that have moved from New Zealand. He used Chem-Dry out there and wanted his oriental rug cleaned with the same process.

Q. Were there any problems?

I am very happy that I have made the switch. It took me a while to get used to the new cleaning machine and the cleaning agents, but I can honestly say that I am getting more customer satisfaction now than with previous methods.Financially the cleaning aspect of my business has seen a 20% rise since joining with Chem-Dry, but the insurance work, lets just say, is a real bonus!