Access4Lofts loft storage franchise has acquired a new head office in Plymouth for its franchisee training, which includes a ladder distribution depot.
The franchise took possession of the keys to their new premises at Easter and since then have been busy setting up the 1,316 sq ft dedicated training centre in readiness for their next training course, which starts on 17th June 2019.
The new HQ houses a training room, admin office, a large storage facility from which loft ladder orders will be fulfilled, and a purpose-built training area to replicate the experience of working in a loft space.
“Our business plan outlined a carefully planned growth strategy. Once we reached 20 franchisees we would expand into our own premises and take on staff,” explains CEO Graham Ormesher. The fact that we reached this magic number ahead of plan is fantastic and we’re very excited to open this new head office”.
Every franchisee goes through the same training process, they’re taught best practice from health and safety to customer service and the practical installation side of the business. “Our philosophy is that by training everyone to the same high standard, we protect the reputation of our whole network and our brand, and this new training centre helps us do just that!” explains Tim Brown, Co-Founder and Operations Director
So, why Plymouth? “Well, Access4Lofts started its life here in Plymouth, purely as a local operation” explains co-founder and Marketing Director Lindsay Brown “It felt totally right to bring operations here and the site we found is absolutely perfect for our needs”.
Supporting their franchisee network is something Tim, Lindsay and Graham are passionate about. So, as well as new premises, the company has employed an experienced office administrator to support the 3 Directors “every franchisee is unique and has different support needs. Some need more technical help whilst others need admin and marketing help so adding another team member to help with this was imperative” explains Tim. “that’s why we’re also in the process of recruiting a Technical Operations Director whose role is to ensure the Access4Lofts franchisees have technical support. This role will also be responsible for designing and delivering all the technical aspects of our training programme” he explains.
A distribution point in Preston has also been set up to service ladder orders from those franchisees based in the North.