Spar
Spar is the leading UK franchisor of 2016, with over 2,600 branches across England, Scotland and Wales, and it is also the leading food retail chain in the world. The company began with a single shop in the Netherlands in 1932, but has since grown to encompass over 13,000 branches in 34 countries around the world, with their first UK branch opening in 1957. 2016 was a particularly successful year for the company, as they scooped an amazing three awards at the 2016 Retail Industry Awards (most improved store, multiple community retailer of the year, store manager of the year), along with numerous other awards from various organisations.
In recent years the company has made great efforts to diversify the range of food products on their shelves, and also to offer a wider variety of healthy options. The company places a heavy emphasis on corporate social responsibility: for the last nine years, Spar has been partnered in the UK with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and Childline. They are always on the lookout for additional franchisees around the UK, and offer excellent services to franchisees, including full training, business support, store development and superior marketing.
Subway
Subway is the leading quick-service restaurant in the world in terms of numbers of units, with over 40,000 branches worldwide. It is also the largest quick-service restaurant in the UK, with roughly 2,200 units spread across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The company was founded by Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1965, under the name Pete’s Super Submarines. The company later rebranded as Pete’s Subway and finally Subway, and in 1974 they successfully adopted the franchise business model, later opening new international franchises in the 1980s.
The company has faced significant competition from newer quick-service chains in recent years, with their revenue having declined 4.3 per cent in 2015, and a net increase of only 34 branches worldwide in that year. However, 2016 was nevertheless an optimistic year for the company, as customers reported 80 per cent satisfaction with the restaurant, an increase over previous years, which is likely in response to their recently broadened menu and their various sales promotions. The company is heavily committed to corporate social responsibility: 97% of their packaging is recyclable, they provide nutritional information for all their sandwiches in partnership with Heart Research UK, and have fundraised for various charitable organisations such as Comic Relief. For more information about how to become a UK Subway franchisee, you can fill out the enquiry form on this page.
Costa Coffee
Costa Coffee is the leader in Britain’s coffee industry, operating more than 2,100 branches across the UK (along with over 6,000 Costa Express vending machines) and is also the second-largest coffee chain in the world. They dominate the UK coffee market such that they no longer offer individual franchise deals in the UK, and are instead only interested in partnering with corporate franchisees. The company was founded in 1971 and placed a premium on the quality of their coffee from the outset, supplying roasted coffee to specialist Italian coffee shops in the UK. Their first non-UK branch was in Dubai, and they currently operate branches in dozens of countries, including nearly 400 branches in China. They also sponsor the annual Costa Book Awards, which offer awards to the best English-language writers of the year.
In 2015 they reported UK revenue in excess of £635 million. However, their growth slowed somewhat in the latter months of 2016, as they began to face increasing competition from independent coffee shops and quick-service restaurants. They have responded to these challenges by expanding their menu and exploring some of the more exciting and experimental developments in modern coffee, such as the rainbow coffee (a coffee made using milk dyed with food colouring to produce a “rainbow” effect). They have also begun to place an increased emphasis on corporate social responsibility, and have, as of November, introduced a nationwide cup recycling scheme as part of an effort to combat unnecessary waste.
McDonald's
McDonald's is easily the most recognisable quick-service restaurant brand in the world, with tens of thousands of locations in dozens of countries, and their brand has become an iconic symbol of quick-service restaurants and American culture generally. The company is particularly successful in the UK, in which it operates roughly 1,200 branches, almost all of which are run by franchisees. The company was founded by the McDonald brothers, Richard and Maurice, in 1940, who operated on the principle of offering a small menu to maximise speed and efficiency. Impressed by their business principles, the company was later bought out by Ray Kroc, who expanded it into the multinational empire we know today.
2016 was just as successful a year as ever for the company, as they recently released their third-quarter earnings in which they reported revenue in excess of $6 billion and earnings of $1.28 billion, precipitating a significant spike in the value of their shares. They continue to be at the forefront of technical innovation in quick-service restaurants, having this year introduced self-service touchscreen kiosks in many of their branches, which is both more convenient for their customers and acts as a cost-saving measure. As with many of their competitors in the quick-service restaurant market, they are continuing a push to diversify their menu, offering an increased range of healthy eating options such as salads and fresh fruit. They are invested in numerous charitable causes, such as the Ronald McDonald Houses, which provide financial and other assistance to the families of seriously ill children. For more information about how to become a UK McDonald's franchisee, you can fill out the enquiry form on this page.
Starbucks
Starbucks is the worldwide industry leader in coffee, with over 20,000 branches across the globe. The company was founded in Seattle in 1971, and have enormous footholds in almost every developed nation. In the UK, they are second only to Costa in number of branches, operating over nine hundred branches, a figure which is only set to increase in the coming years. Their initial business model was based upon introducing the sophisticated “gourmet coffee culture” of southern Italy to an American audience largely unfamiliar with coffee culture. They own several wholly owned subsidiaries, including Seattle’s Best Coffee. The vast majority of their branches are company-owned, and they have only recently begun to adopt the franchising model, with most of their franchising efforts being concentrated in Europe.
In 2015, they reported UK revenue in excess of £400 million, and their success continued well into 2016. Although the company has faced increased competition both from other coffee chains and from the independent coffee sector, they have combated this encroachment via continued diversification of their menu, offering a wider selection of coffees and teas (including seasonal varieties, such as the enormously popular Pumpkin Spice Latte) and a broad range of pastries and baked goods. 2016 was capped off by the announcement that long-time CEO Howard Schultz, who has been with the company for several decades, is to step down next April, and will be replaced by current COO Howard Johnson.
Domino’s Pizza
Domino’s Pizza is the preeminent takeaway pizza company in the UK, operating more than 950 franchises. The company was founded in Michigan in 1960, and is currently the second-largest pizza chain in the world, operating more than 12,000 branches in over 80 countries globally. In the company’s history, they have pioneered numerous innovations in the delivery and takeaway food industries, such as their “30 minute delivery” guarantee (now only available in select regions); web and mobile ordering services; their “pizza tracker” software; and various developments in how their pizza is delivered, including specialised delivery cars and even recent experiments with drone delivery. Their delivery cars are more fuel-efficient than standard vehicles, which ties into their other pro-environmental efforts, such as their recyclable pizza boxes. In the UK, they are partnered with the Teenage Cancer Trust, which is just one of several charities they support.
The company has undergone a substantial and deliberate reinvention in recent years, in response to poor consumer ratings regarding the quality of their product. CEO J. Patrick Doyle spearheaded a highly self-deprecatory ad campaign shortly after he took over the position in 2010, which featured a range of negative criticisms from customers about the taste and texture of Domino’s pizzas, and promises from Doyle and other Domino’s staff to improve. To this end, they have revitalised and diversified their menu, offering new options such as vegan pizzas or region-specific menus. Having improved the quality of their pizzas, the company even made a daring move to recently open franchises in Italy, a strategy that even Starbucks has yet to match. The reinvention has paid off for Domino’s, with their share price having significantly grown since Doyle’s appointment as CEO. They continue to be one of the most popular pizza chains among UK consumers, and have a target of operating 1,600 branches in the UK within the next few years.
KFC
KFC is one of the most successful fast food chains in the world, operating over 20,000 outlets globally, and serving upwards of 12 million customers every day. More than 700 of these 20,000 branches are located in the UK, making it one of the UK’s most popular restaurant franchises. The company as we know it was founded in 1952 by Harland Sanders under the name “Kentucky Fried Chicken”; Sanders had earlier started the business by selling chicken in his filling station, before expanding the concept and eventually selling it to franchisees, the first of which was located in Utah. In 1964, Sanders sold the company to investors for $2 million, but remained with the company as a brand ambassador for many years: the popular Colonel Sanders logo became iconic of the brand, comparable to the McDonald’s golden arches in worldwide recognizability. In 1992 the company was renamed “KFC”, in reflection of the company’s substantial broadening of their menu to include products other than chicken.
As of 2016, KFC (by way of its parent company Yum! Brands) is making significant alterations to their menu and adopting something of a back-to-basics approach, which they are calling “Re-Colonelization”. In his lifetime, Sanders was publicly critical of several of the changes the company had made to his recipes and menu since selling the company: the company is now endeavouring to restore the “Colonel” quality to their menu, the quality that made the brand so popular in the first place. The company has been committed to corporate social responsibility practically since its inception: the Kentucky Fried Chicken Foundation offers scholarship funds to thousands of students; while the Add Hope organisation is a programme aiming to provide food to hungry families around the world, and which raised more than $11 million in cash and food donations in 2015 alone.
Kumon
Kumon is the most popular private tutoring company in the UK, operating nearly 700 branches across England, Scotland and Wales, and offers private tutoring to children from as young as three to older than thirteen, and specialising in the core GCSE and A-level subjects of English and maths. The Kumon Institute of Education was founded in 1958 by Toru Kumon in Osaka, who found that the maths worksheets he’d written for his son were popular among his son’s classmates. The company soon after adopted a franchise model, with their first franchise opening in Tokyo in 1962. From these humble beginnings the company has grown into likely the largest private tutoring company in the world, operating over 25,000 franchises in 49 countries. Their tried-and-tested methods for developing reading comprehension skills, numeracy, mathematical literacy and so on have earned them one success after another.
2016 was a particularly successful year for the company: in June, over 4.2 million children were enrolled in their educational programmes around the world, and they celebrated several anniversaries of how long they have been providing tutoring services to specific regions. They continue to be a highly recognisable brand, having been featured in publications as diverse as the New York Times and BuzzFeed. Kumon claim to be one of the cheapest franchise opportunities available, requiring a minimum investment of just £1,000. Since 2014, the company has been partnered with the UK’s National Literacy Trust, an organisation dedicated to promoting literacy and reading comprehension in British children, and in that year alone they raised £19,000 for the organisation.
Pizza Hut
In the list of the UK’s most popular pizza chains, Pizza Hut is second only to the aforementioned Domino’s Pizza. They currently operate more than 650 outlets across Britain, the majority of which are run by franchisees (as opposed to company-owned). The company originated in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, when brothers Dan and Frank Carney borrowed $600 from their mother to open their own pizzeria, which rapidly grew in popularity. Since this innocuous beginning, Pizza Hut has grown into the biggest pizza chain in the world, operating over 15,000 branches worldwide, 76% of which are run exclusively by franchisees. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the aforementioned Yum! Brands, the same restaurant company which owns KFC.
The company has undergone a significant revitalisation in recent years in response to declining sales. In 2014 the company unveiled a dramatic revamping of their product line, allowing customers greater choice in how to customise their pizza toppings and crusts, including unusual ingredients such as honey or curry flavouring. These include “skinny” pizzas which are lower in calories and more nutritious than their standard pizzas. This revitalisation is excellent news for the UK market: in May of last year, the company announced an ambitious plan to create 3,000 jobs across the UK and Ireland. They have also unveiled innovative new practices such as allowing customers to place orders via social media. The company’s corporate social responsibility practices have not been lacking either. In response to criticisms regarding the nutritional content of their pizzas, the company has recently slashed the salt content of many of their products; and they also sponsor various environmental programmes to limit the environmental impact of their business, such as the Pizza Hut Harvest Programme to cut down on food waste.
Burger King
Burger King is the second-most popular hamburger chain in the UK after McDonald’s, running nearly 500 chains along the length of Britain. The company was founded in 1953 under the name Insta-Burger King, by Kieth J. Kramer and Matthew Burns in Jacksonville, Florida. Just two years later, the brand had expanded to more than forty locations across the state of Florida. Kramer and Burns sold the company in 1959, upon which it was re-branded as Burger King. Over the following decades it grew into a recognisable global presence, operating nearly 15,000 branches in over eighty nations. They pioneered various strategies which have since become commonplace in the quick-service restaurant industry, such as toy-based promotional campaigns and tie-ins with popular films such as Star Wars or Back to the Future. Their brand identity, intended to differentiate the company from their chief rivals, is themed around an anarchic and subversive sense of humour, as opposed to the more family-friendly images projected by McDonald’s or Wendy’s.
In 2014, the company acquired the Canadian coffee chain Tim Horton’s, one of the most popular coffee chains in the world. Both companies are wholly owned by the investment firm 3G Capital. In recent years the brand has adopted a similar strategy to many of their rivals in the fast-casual dining industry, and has taken steps to diversify their menu, offering a wider range of options to suit different tastes and diets, and offering seasonal menu items. The company also operates several organisations as part of their corporate social responsibility programme. These include the Burger King Scholars programme, which awards scholarships to high school students and Burger King employees; and their partnership with Room to Read, which provides educational opportunities for children across Africa and southeast Asia.
Summary
As has been the case almost since the franchising business model first rose to prominence, the quick-service restaurant industry in 2016 remained the most popular sector for the UK franchising industry, which is very much in line with global trends. Most of these quick-service restaurants adopted very similar approaches in how to grow their brands in the past year: increasing the range of options available on their menus to appeal to a wider range of tastes and diets; endeavouring to promote an environmentally conscious and socially responsible image; and embracing technological advances to streamline the services they provide. These trends are also visible in the other industries in which franchising was popular in the last year: franchisors in the coffee and supermarket industries likewise made a point of diversifying the range of products they have on offer and adopting and emphasising their socially responsible business practices.
The quick-service restaurant and coffee industries remain highly competitive fields, which have faced growing competition not solely from other major franchise chains, but also from independent restaurants and coffee shops. However, the earnings reported by the majority of franchises in these industries speak for themselves, and potential future franchisees considering investing in these industries can consider them a reasonably safe bet. The top UK franchise companies have risen to this prestigious position via a keen awareness of the strengths and demands of franchising, and a shrewd eye for finding the right individuals to serve as franchisees. If you are considering a change of career and want to be your own boss in the New Year, consider investing in one of these franchises, or one of the others featured on our website.