Poppies springing forward to success after stellar start to year
Domestic cleaning franchise, Poppies, is celebrating one of its strongest starts to a calendar year to date. The 25-strong franchise network, which has welcomed three new starters this year alone, is continuing to see impressive growth amid increasing demand for exceptional home services across the UK, with recent figures showing 20% growth across the industry year on year1.
With a recently expanded head office team to further support and nurture the success of the fast-growing network, the cleaning brand is primed to further embed itself as one of the UK’s most exciting franchise opportunities with further plans for growth throughout the rest of 2023.
With new franchisees in Warwick, Nottingham and most recently Hounslow, Poppies’ nationwide expansion is continuing to be capitalised upon by entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds, all of whom are making a lasting impact in their local communities.
Launched in February, Kuldeep Mahi of Poppies Warwick was attracted to the scalability and the potential for growth that Poppies could offer, particularly as it allowed him to continue to run his marketing company and volunteer for the Samaritans in his free time. “I wanted to join a business which was 100% British, with strong family values and a demonstrated history of exceptional service. I know for a fact I found that with Poppies! There’s such a wealth of experience and knowledge in the head office team, you really feel like you’re in safe hands. It never felt like I was just buying into a business, even before I started; Poppies have a real community feel which made them really stand out to me.”
The most recent franchisee to be welcomed to the network is Soniya Fernandes of Poppies Hounslow. Born and raised in India, Soniya moved to England four years ago to live with her husband and business partner, Lester, to launch their new cleaning franchise. “I was looking for a business I could build from an established base, something to give me that flexibility and income so I could live comfortably and not worry about where my next paycheque was coming from. I researched so many competitors in the cleaning industry, but the thing about Poppies which really stood out was the support and the training they offer to their franchisees. We couldn’t be happier with our decision to join Poppies!”
Poppies’ latest franchise recruits join the brand at a perfect time, with much of the year so far being dedicated to ramping up business development processes from the franchisor and head office team. Already this year has seen the appointment of a new Marketing and Social Media Assistant, Michaela, along with the promotion of Poppies veteran Dianne, who will now be joining the Franchisee Support team and brings with her over 20 years of operational experience at all levels. The new appointments strengthen the already-impressive head office team and are indicative of the huge growth Poppies has seen in 2023.
This increased investment from the franchisor has also seen web traffic across all franchisees up by 47%, with two high-flying outlets benefitting heavily as they near-doubled the size of their pre-Covid operation. Poppies Sheffield has seen a growth of 193% in turnover with Poppies Stockport seeing 184%. Poppies Wirral is following closely behind with a 176% increase.
“We’ve had a strong six months of growth in terms of the network and customers, demonstrating there is still a real demand for our professional cleaning services,” said Chris Wootton, Managing Director of Poppies. “With our three new franchisees joining our family and the surge in web traffic, I’m really pleased with our progress this year, leading to a good financial standing for our franchisee’s businesses. This continued growth indicates a brand primed for helping prospective franchisees find the perfect franchise devoted to innovation and investment in people and business development. We’re thrilled to be where we are today and look forward to continuing to strengthen our franchise opportunity to expand the network even more.”