The UK’s leading Commercial Cleaning & Facilities Management Franchise Opportunity
Commercial cleaning and facilities management is a vast sector with continuous demand where you manage the needs of your clients, combining your team and the latest tech to deliver the bespoke mix of services their premises require.
Unlimited potential: NO territory restrictions
We have a refreshingly different approach: guiding, supporting and encouraging you to build a larger business, without restricting you to only operating in a small local territory. You can even utilise other franchisees located around the country to deliver your furthest contracts. Win-Win.
Additional income streams from multiple FM services
Your team will deliver the range of repeating relatively simple services, enabling you to build a contracted recurring income. Forge deep client relationships, while continually adding more contracts to grow an asset to sell in the future, all while enjoying a stable monthly income.
The latest cleaning science, tech and robotics
Benefit from the wider group’s experience and buying power to leverage the latest tech to save your cleaning operatives’ time and energy, enabling your NIC business to have a competitive advantage and to maximise profitability with the SME markets you will serve.
No experience needed: 1-2-1 business mentoring
“We believe we provide franchisees the highest level of personal guidance and support of any established franchise in the UK. Typically, each of our full-time Business Development Managers works 1-2-1 with five franchisees; providing ongoing coaching, guidance and support on every element of their business. The support changes as the franchisee confidence grows - it really works.- ”Jo Lock - BDM & Franchise General Manager (and former NIC franchise)
A market-leading brand for your business
Established over 50 years ago, the NIC Services Group has a team of over 10,000 people, serving the UK’s biggest brands. NIC Local benefits from the brand, accreditations, systems, tech and buying power, to target the higher-margin SME market.
Administrative support
We know how to make it easier for you, so you can engage the departments of the group’s vast head office team for supporting your business with functions such as administration, invoicing and credit control giving you valuable time to work on, not in, your business.
Daily Contract Cleaning – a necessity, not a luxury
With 80% of our customers being contracted to regular, often daily, cleans our franchisees businesses remain largely unaffected by seasonal or economic influences. Whilst many other sectors are struggling in the current environment our services have become even more valued.
Franchisees come from a wide range of backgrounds, all hungry to be successful
Leverage your prior career, contacts and sector experience to your benefit. With NIC alongside you, take on higher-margin locally based contracts: schools, colleges, offices, doctors and dental surgeries, retail outlets, university accommodation, car dealerships, pubs and restaurants…
It’s a massive market with no limits to growth and 80% of our customers are contracted for daily cleans.
A journey with guidance every step of the way
Before your business launches, you will undertake a one-week training course at our support office in Leeds. This enables you to really get to know the people at NIC – it’s like joining one big family.
Your role changes as you grow
Initially you can work from your home office, focusing on growing your contracts, with the constant support of your BDM’s 1-2-
1 guidance for every element of your business. This will enable you to learn and grow in confidence as you work together. We don’t know of another franchise with this level of personal mentoring in the UK.
Once your business is established your role elevates to leading your management team, who will oversee your operators. This will free you to focus on maintaining and building client relationships.
Join the NIC Family
NIC Services Group is one of the UK’s largest Contract Cleaning and Facilities Management businesses. Despite our size, with NIC still being family-owned and operated, we are able to retain the culture of a small business where people really do matter.
And with no territory restrictions, you won’t ever run out of target clients!
We have great relationships with the franchise departments of the major high street banks, who have a strong appetite to lend 70% of the start up costs. With a total investment of circa £45,000 including working capital, you will need to invest in the region of £14,000 from your own resources, with bank funding for the rest.
Build from a fresh start, or invest more to buy an existing portfolio. You won’t just build a healthy recuring income with your own NIC business, you will be creating an asset to sell in the future.
Get in touch with David to find out more…
Don’t hesitate – make the call that puts your future in your own hands
NIC Franchise Case Study – Roger Downs
NIC Services Group launched their first franchise in 1995. Having been involved in the cleaning & support services industry since 1960 NIC looked to franchising as a way of expanding their business further. Through the franchise model they were able to do this with people who had a real passion and commitment to the success of the business because they were investing into it. When choosing their first franchisee they were looking for someone with drive and a determination to succeed who wasn’t afraid to take a risk by becoming the pilot franchisee and who could evolve with the franchise model.
As most franchisees are looking for a proven track record of replicating the business through franchising, this was one of NIC’s biggest recruitment challenges. Dan Archer, Franchise Development Director explains “After 18 years of franchising with over 40 franchisees in the network NIC has this experience now but when we were first recruiting we did not. As a result, in 1995, even with 35 years’ experience as a cleaning service provider, we had to work hard to evidence the proven nature of our model.”
Roger Downs fitted this bill perfectly and after a comprehensive selection process became NIC’s pilot franchisee. John Pinnick, NIC’s Managing Director explains “As a Chartered Accountant we knew that Roger had the business acumen we were looking for and his determination to succeed highlighted to us he was the perfect fit to pilot our franchise model.”
Choosing that right first franchisee is extremely important as they are proof of the franchisabilty of the business, the first case study of success and are instrumental in forming and refining the support structure that all subsequent franchisees will benefit from.
Dan adds “The first franchisee allows the franchisor to learn why someone chooses to become a franchisee and start to benchmark what “franchisee performance” can be. Quite simply franchising an existing business is not easy but if the wrong pilot franchisee is selected it can be much harder still.”
Having now been with NIC for over 18 years and having re-signed his 5 year franchise agreement a further three times since his launch date, Roger has proved to be an excellent choice as NIC’s pilot franchisee. Roger states “I joined NIC in their early days of franchising as I believed there was an excellent opportunity to join the business and grow with them. I became NIC’s first £1million turnover franchisee after building up a very successful business with the support and guidance provided by NIC.”
The advice that NIC would give to other franchisors when looking at selecting their first franchisee would be to think carefully about the attitude and attributes that the prospective franchisee has. Dan Archer states “In 15 years of recruiting franchisees I have never met a prospect who tells you how bad they are. They will be selling themselves in the same way that you will be selling the concept. It is more difficult with the first franchisee for a new franchisor as they don’t yet know what “wrong” looks like but I would say push them to explain what they will bring to the business and make it clear that the success of their business is of paramount importance to the brand.”
Franchisors should be prepared for the first franchisee being entrepreneurial and as a result harder to keep to a system. You may find that when the business has an established network the first franchisee has already moved onto something else.
