Petpals franchise celebrates 14 years with current and former owners!
21st May 2018
LtoR: Owner 1: Nick Skinner. Owner 2: Ruth Wall. Owner 3 (present owner): Peter Lea
We are delighted to announce that Petpals Bracknell is celebrating its 14th birthday and three present and former owners have got together to mark the occasion.
One of the beauties of owning a Petpals franchise is the ability to sell it on when life takes you in a different direction or you wish to retire. Nick Skinner, Ruth Wall and Peter Lea have all owned Petpals Bracknell at one time or another since it was founded in 2004.
The franchise has undergone a few territory boundary changes in its time and now Peter Lea is the proud owner of Petpals Bracknell and Petpals Wokingham and Sandhurst, which cares for pets in the local areas.
The company was originally owned by Nick Skinner who bought the first franchise in April 2004. Nick then sold it on to his client Ruth in 2009, when he became Southern Operations Manager for us here at head office.
Ruth then ran the business for 9 years until her retirement in 2017.
Today, under Peter’s ownership, the two businesses, Petpals Bracknell and Petpals Wokingham & Sandhurst, walks and boards dogs and visits cats and small caged animals in their homes.
Founder Nick said,
‘I am so proud that a business I founded 14 years ago is going from strength to strength. I was looking after Ruth’s dogs, Seamus and Tiger, when Petpals approached me to go ‘in house’ and work for them. After some fairly swift negotiations, aided by head office, Ruth became the new owner.’
Ruth continues,
‘Because I was buying a franchise I could see the figures and knew it would be a success. Owning Petpals Bracknell was the very best job of my career. Not only were the pets fun, but the customers were delightful and my staff were brilliant.’
When she retired in January 2018, Ruth sold the business on to Peter who, in keeping with the new tradition, had been a client since 2005.
Peter said,
‘It is such a joy owning Petpals Bracknell. I’d spent over 30 years sitting at a desk, so when the opportunity came along to do something very different, that I really had a passion for, naturally I jumped at it and I haven’t looked back. Having been a customer for many years I knew that Petpals was a premium brand with an excellent reputation in the area, so the decision to purchase the territory wasn’t a hard one to make.’
Peter continues,
‘I have really loved my first three months of being a Petpals franchisee, as well as the obvious pleasure of working with animals and enjoying the outdoors, it’s been brilliant to meet new and existing customers, and I am thoroughly enjoying being my own boss.’
MD of Petpals Kevin Thackrah said,
‘This story is a prime example of the strength of franchising. Not only does it show Petpals Bracknell to be a strong and successful business, but an individual pet carer or dog walker simply wouldn’t have been able to sell their businesses on as a going concern, as both Nick and Ruth have done but, because the business was part of a nationally recognised brand, the transition was seamless. Their clients were not affected by the change in ownership and each owner walked away with a satisfactory financial outcome. People often only think about the first act of purchasing the franchise and all the well documented benefits that brings, but they often forget about the benefits at the selling stage, which are just as important.’
Peter says his vision for the company is to continue to offer a premium pet-care service to his clients and enjoy spending time with some of the furry, fluffy and scaly residents of Berkshire.
Petpals currently have three territories available for resale in South Manchester, Chorley and Bolton West and Ribble Valley; if you would like to know more, full details can be found here: https://petpals.com/franchise-resales/
ENDS MAY 2018
