Industry Focus

CUSTOMER CONVERSATION Chat with Esquires Coffee's Faith Manning Esquires Coffee recently gained accreditation, a process Faith Manning, the company's Manager of Franchisee Recruitment and Leasing, found easier with Westpac's Relationship Managers WORDS: AMAL AWAD Westpac's aspiration is to be the most recommended bank in the franchising sector, with a strong appetite for growth. "We will achieve our aspiration through strong partnerships with our franchise clients," says Sharen Verrenkamp, Senior Business Development Manager of Franchising at Westpac. Westpac recently assisted Esquires Coffee—part of Retail Food Group, Australasia's largest multi-food franchise— to become accredited. "A bank accreditation enables Esquires franchisees to borrow up to 50 per cent of the total set-up costs of a new franchise, or purchase costs of an existing franchise business using the business as security." Faith, how did you find Westpac's accreditation process? Becoming accredited is generally quite a lengthy process, with a lot of work going on between the bank and the franchisor. I was really lucky in the fact that I have a fantastic connection with our Relationship Manager Sharen Verrenkamp from Westpac and that Retail Food Group has a longstanding relationship with the bank. What does an accreditation involve? We go through an annual process, where Westpac and myself will run the numbers on the business, then I provide them with an updated disclosure document. We have one to three meetings involving our operations department and our brand's managing director to get Westpac understanding how we operate, how we support our franchisees, the training that we provide to them, deal with any issues as they come up and open up that communication from the beginning. Why was it important for Esquires Coffee to be accredited? The accreditation process is one that Retail Food Group really values with Westpac. When franchisees come to 16 Industry Focus LEFT: Faith Manning at an Esquires Coffee store. us and they're interested in one of our franchise businesses, the next questions they have are, 'How do I get finance? What do I have to do now? What options are available to me?' Being accredited allows me to say with confidence, 'Contact Sharen from Westpac. She will be able to listen to you, understand what your requirements are, and then we'll put you on to someone at a local level who you can talk to about Esquires Coffee and Retail Food Group.' Historically, we've had a number of issues with other banks, whereby potential franchisees have gone to banks at their local level and haven't received the service that they needed because the local banker had no idea about the accreditations and what sort of benefits that could have to the potential franchisee with finance. Have you seen immediate benefits? Yes, I have. If I put someone in touch with Sharen and Westpac, I know they're going to be looked after, that they're going to get the best possible service while they are looking for finance. What do you see as the main benefits for both the franchisor and franchisee? It can be difficult to borrow funds these days and having the accreditation in place makes it much easier for the franchisee. How does having a specialist Relationship Manager help? Sharen's always available to assist on any issues and we communicate regularly on the phone. I also put Sharen in touch with our managing directors, so that she can contact them if there's an issue with a store or a franchisee—if they're late in their repayments or need to speak to brand management regarding an issue. It's great to have the bank on your side. I'm confident sending someone to Sharen. How else has accreditation been helpful? Accreditation also helps us with renewals and refurbishments, because every five years, in a shopping centre for example, the landlord will ask our franchisees to refurbish their store up to the current corporate standard. So we also run a lot of that business through to Westpac.

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