HiQ Network Reaches 150 Outlets

At its second 2010 national conference, HiQ announced what it calls a number of historic milestones in the development of the UK’s only hard franchise fast fit network. Franchisees at the two-day workshop and business forum event were welcomed by recently appointed HiQ retail director Peter Tye, who shared news of developments within the network on the second anniversary of it becoming a fully franchised operation.

The HiQ network, said Tye, now includes 150 centres run by 51 franchise businesses – growing from a base of 33 centres run by 22 franchisees less than two years ago. He attributed the success of the network’s growth strategy to “consistency in delivering HiQ’s core values of innovation, growth and partnership,” and upon welcoming the owners of the newest ten franchise sites Tye announced that interest from the market “remained high” and notes the growing active interest from car dealers looking for a multi-brand fast fit opportunity.

As for the retail network’s business performance, Tye announced the company’s third quarter performance trading results and confirmed that HiQ continued to outperform the market for the third consecutive quarter: Market data revealed that like for like sales across the industry were down by one per cent, while HiQ achieved an overall increase of 3.8 per cent. Retail finance and IT manager Sam Bouch added that footfall had increased 6.1 per cent from January to November this year compared to the same period in 2009.
Year on year turnover like for like increased by 5.8 per cent while gross profit increased by over eight per cent.

“These figures represent a massive achievement and are testament to the hard work that all of our franchise partners are carrying out,” said Peter Tye. “We have all been working through some difficult economic conditions, which makes these results all the more impressive. The market is improving, but it is still difficult out there. However, HiQ is outperforming the market which is great news for us.

“I am looking forward to seeing some more great results in 2011 as our local entrepreneurial heroes coupled with our strong national brand continue to make a difference,” Tye concluded. “Our partnership based structure will continue to play a huge role in everything we try to achieve and our franchise model is one that continues to reap rewards.”