Ableworld franchise

Ableworld is one of the leading retailers in the mobility and home care sector in the UK

We provide a wide range of mobility and home care products specially produced for the elderly including personal dressing, healthcare equipment, toileting and braces. We also offer mattresses, bathing aids, chairs and special kitchen tools. However, we are most known for our mobility products such as powerchairs, scooters, wheelchairs and stairlifts.

Ableworld has a huge number of loyal customers thanks to the quality of our products and the high standards of our customer care.

At Ableworld, we want not only to continue our great success but we want others to succeed with us. That is why we are encouraging people to join us in our quest of helping the elderly through franchising. Interested applicants need at least £80,000 but may start for as low as £25,000 as major banks may cover most of the finances and total initial investment costs. The package includes almost everything needed to open the franchise including but not limited to marketing, training, accounting setting, support and mentors.

Ableworld’s comprehensive training programme covers all sides of the business including products, systems, marketing, sales and engineering (for the stairlifts) . Over seven weeks franchisees spend time at Ableworld Head Office, their own store and at key suppliers. The programme also includes significant on-the-job training from experienced Ableworld trainers in Ableworld stores and in the franchisee’s own store.

An Ableworld franchise can be run by a single operator or as sometimes happens two or more people pooling their skills (eg a married couple). Franchisees come from a wide variety of backgrounds such as sales, retail, construction, armed forces, teaching and health. No previous experience of the mobility industry is needed as the company has a comprehensive training programme. Successful franchises have a desire to help people and the drive and determination to succeed at business. Among the personal skills required to run an Ableworld franchise are customer service, good communication skills and general business acumen.

The mobility industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in today’s retail space. UK demographic and economic forces are very positive for this sector. There are currently almost 15 million people aged 60 and above in the UK and this is predicted to rise to 20 million by 2030. People are living longer and the millions of ‘baby boomers’ born in the 1950s and 1960’s, now reaching their ‘third age’, frequently need the products and services that Ableworld offers; and since many people in this age group often have final salary pensions and significant property equity they have the resources to purchase equipment like mobility scooters, specialist furniture and stairlifts.

Ableworld, which was founded in 2001, opened eight of its own stores before offering their model up for franchising in 2008. They now have 34 stores across the country from Scotland to Southampton, from Colchester to Cardiff. Half of these stores are company-owned and half have been opened under the franchise umbrella. Having their own stores as well as franchises means that Ableworld has ‘skin-in-the-game’ giving franchisees the security of knowing that if the franchisor says that something will work, it probably will. It also means that a process of continuous improvement exists as company stores and franchise stores find ever better ways of doing business and sharing that best practice.

Ableworld’s strategy from the beginning was to build a trustworthy brand so that the company could capitalise on the unstoppable positive market forces referred to above. The company has grown significantly both organically and by acquisition and it will always consider these options going forward; however, the management is convinced that the main engine of growth as far as the store network is concerned will be via the franchise model. Ableworld are targeting a national coverage of 60-70 stores with at least 60% of the total being franchised-owned outlets.