Andrew Ford says franchising his business and exploring new ventures has been the key to sustaining growth in a competitive marketplace.
Andrew Ford says franchising his business and exploring new ventures has been the key to sustaining growth in a competitive marketplace.
The former 40under40 winner and director of Ford and Doonan Air Conditioning, founded in 1985 with co-director Kyle Doonan, said he was motivated to change his business model after the market began to reach saturation point for ducted reverse cycle air-conditioning.
“We wanted to grow without compromising our quality. The market has steady growth at the top end, but the bottom end was opening up,” Mr Ford told WA Business News.
He said his initial approach was to try and capture the lower end of the market.
“We identified that the market was evolving differently, so a different brand name was developed. We started Red Air and rented additional space next to our existing store at City West.”
A lack of investment resulted in the new line being abandoned.
“We didn’t focus enough time on our new brand. We didn’t commit enough money or effort, and it didn’t succeed,” Mr Ford said.
“As an entrepreneur, I have no regrets in the venture. I learnt a lot and won’t make the same mistake again.”
He realised the business either had to focus on its existing brand or explore new ventures, and the decision was made to franchise the business.
But there were plenty of obstacles associated with learning a new area of business, and a lack of appropriate franchise models to work from.
“There had been no successful air-conditioning franchising system in Australia that had survived, that we knew of,” Mr Ford said.
But, despite these potential barriers to success, the company has grown to the point where it currently has three franchises, with a fourth to open in Bunbury next month.
“The future is that we’ll expand the franchises system into country WA and look at converting some of the remaining company stores along the way,” Mr Ford said.
“I think it’s a powerful thing to keep some of the stores.”
The company is also considering importing new products to diversify the business going forward.
“We’re looking to find the market niches – looking to find growth businesses and sectors in the future, say 2015, and positioning ourselves to what will be the big thing,” Mr Ford said.
