Member Article

Uxbridge Businessman Claims Major Accolade At Flagship Franchising Awards

Driver Hire franchisee Ed Pockney has been announced as the winner of the Business Transformation category at the 2019 bfa HSBC Franchise Awards, held at the Vox, Birmingham.

Ed, who was a financial stockbroker for over two decades before becoming a Driver Hire franchisee, managed to claim the accolade after presenting exceptional growth since taking over the Uxbridge franchise in November 2014.

In under five years, he has grown his franchise from 96th in the network to get it into the top 20. In the past four-and-a-half years, he has delivered over 43,500 shifts and have shown a huge commitment to development of staff, including employing six trainers.

Stated Ed Pockney: “The most important thing, over anything else, is not letting your customer down. I have been meticulous since taking over the business to make the turnover a six-fold increase.”

The Business Transformation category highlights second generation franchisees achieving new levels of growth, profitability and efficiency. This was a brand new category to the awards, reflecting the increased levels of success evident in the industry.

The awards evening is the flagship event in the franchising calendar and getting a nomination in itself is a major achievement, proving the business works ethically and in the best interests of staff and customers, fighting off many other companies vying for the accolade.

Pip Wilkins, CEO of the British Franchise Association, stated: “Ed runs his business exceptionally well and looks at every detail. This includes hiring multilingual staff to improve the experience for both the drivers, and the customers. The way he has scaled up the business lies in all these details.”

Andy Brattesani, UK Head of Franchising, HSBC, added: “While all of the shortlisted candidates have shown that you can scale up operations with the right strategy, Ed’s stood out as he clearly identified where opportunities were available and worked on them until he became the preferred business of choice in the area.”

Ed won the Business Transformation award by staving off competition from Gill Dawson - Molly Maid, and Simon White - Home Instead Senior Care.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Caitlin Cook .