FAMILY AFFit
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• The WPS Express parcels franchise operation is an octopus, according to managing director Brian Lawrence: "The Birmingham-based hub is the body and the franchisees are its tentacles. The lifeblood of the business flows from the body to the tentacles and vice versa. One cannot survive without the other."
Mutual dependence between parent company and franchisees is encouraged by Lawrence. lie admits that he is affectionately known as "The Godfather", not for any suspect Sicilian connections, but because he always tries to engender a family spirit.
"Our franchises are all family-run businesses," he says. "1 feel responsible for them. They have invested money in this business and have become part of the WPS family."
Lawrence has been involved for the past 10 years in the marketing of express parcels services with major players such as TNT and Parceline.
Ile joined WPS in February this year and is full of enthusiasm for the business.
"1 feel there is tremendous potential for our franchisees — the franchise concept is one of the fastest-growing areas of business in the world today," he says. in the 18 months WPS Express has operated as a franchise business, the company has almost reached the stage where there is at least one WPS parcel centre covering every postcode area in the country. WPS Express, launched three and a half years ago and turned into a franchise operation at the start of 1989, is the progeny of Ware Transport, set up at the beginning of the 1970s by Alan Parsons, now the WPS Group chairman.
Firms involved with WPS Express before the advent of its franchise network were allowed to buy into the new business for £2,000 per postcode area.
As the business grew, those joining between January-April 1990 needed £5,000 to purchase a postcode area and since May this has increased to a minimum of £10,000 — more if the area has greater potential, says Lawrence.
The country has been split into postcode areas,rather than using county boundaries, and WPS Express originally set out to recruit around 100 franchisees to cover all these areas.
Most of these are now on board although there are still a few vacancies. The stringent vetting procedure must also be mutual, Lawrence insists. "The franchisees have to be right for us but, equally, we have to be right for them," he says. "They have to understand the market and realise there is a lot of hard work involved. They have to be made aware of the pitfalls, but they must also know that the rewards are there."
Lawrence wants to know that each potential farichisee is financially sound with good business acumen: understanding credit control, staff and vehicle management and with "the ability, ingenuity, foresight and determination to get the most out of the area they would like to purchase".
But the franchisee does not operate in isolation. There is considerable back-up from the centre, although this must be paid for.
A management fee of around £2,000 a year, payable monthly, means each franchisee can call on the expertise of a regional manager and the operational director for problem-solving advice and help with securing business. A selection of training courses — from sales through to credit control — will also be available for franchisees and their personnel.
As far as extras go, franchisees also have to pay a goods-in-transit insurance premium to WPS and an advertising fee — lq up to a maximum of 22,500 per annum — is levied, giving a direct link into the company's publicity/marketing department.
Lawrence is "surprised and pleased" with the continuing quality of enquiries coming in about WPS Express franchises. "We are being approached by much larger companies than ever before," he says. "People are seeing the advantages of belonging to a parcels delivery service such as ours."
Lawrence believes the potential for new business after 1992 is tremendous. "We have to let peole know that it's just as easy to send their parcels to Billericay or Bahrain," he says. "Here at WPS everything is under one umbrella — whatever you want to send, wherever you want to send it."
Roy Baker, managing director of WPS International, explains how this is possible: "Air France was operating a worldwide door-to-door system called MACH+ and WPS has become the UK partner.
"WPS controls all aspects of MACH+ in the UK through its majority interest in a joint venture company, Sodexi UK. This takes its name from the French company established by Air France, the French Post office and French express parcels operator TAT, to develop the MACH+ product throughout the world."
MACH+ is based on international air services, with collection and delivery in each country carried out by major express parcels operators.
"It is part of the agreement that MACH+ feeds the WPS Express system," says Baker. "MACH+ offers a total worldwide capability, using the Air France network where possible. We are now handling over 400 consignments per month on the import side and up to 80 per month on the export side and it has only been up and running for three months."
In the UK, WPS Express can offer a range of services: 09:00hrs, 10.30hrs, timed delivery, next-day and a two-three day service. "On average we are dealing with between 14,000 and 16,000 parcels per night and this is growing all the time," says Lawrence.
A "major blue chip Company" in the UK recently carried out its own independent survey on WPS Express which revealed a 99.3% success rate of consignment deliveries over a six-month period.
WI'S is developing further new ventures to assist its franchisees. It recently launched WPS Express Pak, guaranteeing nextday delivery anywhere in Britain (except the Highlands, Grampian and Tayside) for documents and small packages of up to five kilos. Customers pre-purchase strong
security pouches from their local WPS Express parcels centre for use when the need arises and Lawrence is investigating adding a person-to-person service, at a premium.
A new red, white and blue uniform for franchisees and staff has been produced to reinforce the corporate identity and there is a rental scheme to help solve vehicle shortage problems.
WPS Rental is geared up to cater for the special needs of WPS franchisees needing short to meditun-term relief vehicles. Anything from a 500kg payload van to a 10tonne curtairisider, already WPS Express livened, can he provided for periods of a week to three months, or even longer.
Ford, Renault and Mercedes vehicles are used and maintenance and repairs are in eluded in the rental charge, although fuel and insurance are extra. The company says its rates are cheaper than ad hoc rental and, for commitments of more than a month, the franchisee's depot telephone number will be added to the vehicle free of charge.
Lawrence is also examining the possibility of offering customers general haulage and contract distribution services through the Ware Transport division of the group, with the WPS Express franchisee as the point of contact. "The awareness of WPS Express is growing day by day. We have still got room for a few more franchisees on board but they have got to meet our exacting standards," Lawrence sums up. "But we have also got to meet their aspirations. All along it is a two-way deal."