The Wheel Specialist franchise

Take control of your future with a wheel refurbishment
management franchise

In a world filled with uncertainty, The Wheel Specialist network continues to thrive. It’s why 92% of our franchisees smashed through sales records for the start of this year, compared to last year – which was also a record sales year.

This is because we’ve developed a management franchise already proving to be successful for those who follow the model; combining their determination with our support, training, and guidance.

We first started franchising in 2006, but our model is built on the success of a business founded in 1955! Three generations later and we continue to thrive through recessions, the pandemic, and economic crises. We now have over 25 franchisees across the UK, delivering what our customers want: alloy refurbishment – and in 2021 we celebrated the refurbishment of our one millionth wheel!

Why franchise with The Wheel Specialist?

The strength of The Wheel Specialist lies in the quality of service our franchisees’ teams offer customers and their cars, whilst their wheels are being refurbished:

• Proud, market-leading brand – be the best!
• We offer a variety of finishes and colours to meet any request
• Customers can also choose additional services, or purchase home wheel care products, giving you additional revenue sources
• And because you’ll be operating from your own The Wheel Specialist showroom, rather than from a van:
• Customers appreciate a professional and friendly experience
• Whilst your staff can work in all weathers, ensuring a rapid turnaround of the job to a superior standard

With your own The Wheel Specialist franchise: 

• Your staff will help to deliver job satisfaction to our nation-wide share of 20,000+ trade and public customers each year. l
• You’ll also enjoy a share in the total quotable work received by the network: £30m p/a, which is what makes The Wheel Specialist a great opportunity.

You don’t need any experience in wheel refurbishment to succeed in a franchise with The Wheel Specialist. Our experience and expertise will give you everything you need, and our training will ensure you learn The Wheel Specialist way and exceed customer expectations.

As our partner, you will benefit from:

• Being part of a proud, market-leading brand with a heritage of success
• A future-proof business opportunity which delivers exactly what customers want
• Comprehensive training for both you and your team
• Full support in every aspect or starting, and growing, your business
• A dedicated sales rep to help you in your opening weeks
• Tapping into a booming market with huge potential for growth
• Marketing guidance and 200 starting leads
• Exceptional return on investment with breakeven in 12-18 months

All you need to bring is:

• A passion for providing a quality service
• A willingness to learn
• A real focus on customer service
• The ability to manage a team
• The ambition to grow your business for years to come

Start your new business with a brand that has a 5* reputation for exceptional service and has continued to be featured across the major automotive media and TV channels.

Our professional image and approach attracts a wide range of customers to your showroom, from male and female private customers, to dealerships and local traders.

You and your staff will help deliver a 5* service to our nationwide share of more than 20,000 customers every year. The network quoted over £30m of business last year, with an average job value of circa £230. So, this is a strong and well-proven business model you can expect to do well with, and soon see a return on your investment.

This is because wheel refurbishment and customisation is a huge market which thrives no matter the state of the economy. If car sales are declining, you receive great demand from the public; and in boom times you enjoy strong custom from the motor trade.

As you grow your business you could increase your team, and elevate yourself to a true director’s role. Once you have maximised your first territory, there’s huge potential to expand into multiple territories, as you grow.

Committed to supporting your growth, we have a dedicated Trade Sales rep who will visit prospective customers in your territory, on your behalf when you first open for business. He will then give you a list of warm leads, and show you the best way to follow-up with them, giving you the confidence to connect with trade customers.

Your journey to success

These figures are for illustrative purposes; it is possible to exceed any costs mentioned
* Includes deposit on main equipment that is lease purchased over 3-5 years. Premises condition, rent deposit and working capital requirement can cause this figure to vary.

NEXT STEPS

To find out more about how The Wheel Specialist franchise can help you fulfil your aspirations as a successful business owner by clicking the button below to request more information.

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How award-winning franchisee Danny Cleasby kept the wheels from falling off in 2020

Cometh the hour, cometh the man - and Danny Cleasby proved to be exactly the right man in exactly the right place when the pandemic came along to challenge the Durham branch of The Wheel Specialist.

He and his team of six turned what could have been a disastrous year for the business into an undeniable success, then capped it by being chosen as the chain’s Overall Best Performing Franchise of 2020. 

While previously viable businesses in other sectors had the life crushed out of them by the pandemic and the lockdown restrictions, Danny’s franchise in Durham did more business in 2020 than in 2019 and, in July, saw it surge by an unprecedented 33 per cent. 

That rocketing demand meant Danny and his team had to work 15-hour shifts to satisfy it - and the team’s willingness to do that, he says, is what made all that success possible. 

“It isn’t just about me,” he says. “Without those people standing alongside me, it simply wouldn’t work. You need people who are committed and want you to be successful as a business.” 

Most business owners would love their workforces to be as committed as Danny’s, but the secret to his success - though he’s much too modest to admit it - is his leadership style. That’s obvious when he’s asked which title he’d like to be called by - Owner, Managing Director, perhaps? - and he says he prefers Manager. 

“I’m exactly the same as the rest of the people who work here,” he says, emphatically. “I come in to work and get my hands dirty. “I’ve always been hands-on. I don’t sit in the office and direct from there. Leadership is about treating people in the right way - it’s not rocket-science.  

“If you ask people to do a job that may not be very pleasant but they’ve seen you doing it yourself, they’re happy to do it because they know you were prepared to.” His leadership made a difference, too, when the business was allowed to reopen after the first lockdown.  

Head Office had worked hard on a comprehensive protocol for reopening, with signage and precautions and best practice to follow. Realising that his colleagues might have fears and apprehensions about returning to the workplace while Coronavirus was still spreading so rapidly, Danny kept them in the loop with text messages, asked them how they felt about returning to work, then arranged it in stages with their full support. 

Customers, too, needed to feel safe visiting the TWS premises, so Danny kept the showroom door locked for appointment-only jobs and utilised the new guidance and paperless vehicle check-in system that had just been created by Head Office. As a former newsagent and supermarket manager, Danny was never afraid of long hours or hard work, but it was his business acumen that paid off when the pandemic first struck and he realised 2020 wasn’t going to be business-as-usual. 

Wheel-refurbishment work from the automotive trade was drying up, so Danny refocussed the business on consumers, based on his own intuition and reading of the market. “People were off work with very little to do,” he recalls. “They couldn’t go anywhere or do anything, and holidays were off.  They’d passed the time doing DIY or gardening, and in the meantime, their disposable income was mounting up. 

“The next thing to do was to clean the car and fix it up, and a lot of people began wondering where they could get their wheels refurbished.” His hunch and his analysis were right. “I’ve never known us so busy,” he says. “It was absolutely ridiculous. It was almost obscene how much work was coming to us.  “Business was up 33 per cent in July, so we had to adapt and put in the work, with 15-hour shifts just to get it done.” 

Danny bought the franchise after his father was impressed by TWS and encouraged him to take his own Mercedes wheels there.“When we opened this franchise, so few people were doing wheel refurbishment,” he says, “but everyone and his dog seems to be doing it now.” It’s his laser focus on standards that has helped Danny’s operation retain its competitive edge, as TWS clients know they’re getting the highest quality of work and finish available, with state-of-the-art machinery and processes.  

And he doesn’t have a single regret despite the pandemic year with so many weeks of lockdown. “Things could have been a lot worse, and everything this year is going reasonably well,” he says. “Winning the trophy for Overall Best Performing Franchise surprised me more than anything. “But it makes me feel good because of all the hard work that I and my team put into making sure the business survived.” 

And that’s why, even though Danny’s name is on the HMG Powder Coatings-sponsored trophy, he feels it also belongs to his team of Luke Hunter, Gavin Attle, Dean Flannagan, Ben Sutherst, Cameron Smith, and Darren Walters. Typifying his approach and ethos, part of Danny’s prize was a £500 voucher to spend as he wished – which he rejected in favour of something he could split equally among his team.