Franchise fortunes
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• Parcels courier Business Post plans to set up a franchise network in Europe next year, once it has completed its UK recruitment programme.
It is expected to move into France and Belgium first, buying existing depots with fleets to deliver parcels.
However, the company, which is appointing an average of four franchisees a month, is so far having little response from Kent.
Tunbridge Wells is too rural, with not many good roads; Dartford has trouble with traffic congestion at the tunnel, and Bromley is too residential with too little scope to attract new business, says the company's franchise administrator, Sybil Hudson.
Business Post has 44 franchisees, and hopes to appoint 30 more within a year.
Franchisees have recently been taken on in Croydon, Sutton, Bath, Torquay, Swindon, Telford and York.
El Preston-based removals firm Brewer and Turnbull is having trouble finding franchisees in the Portsmouth and Plymouth area.
The company, which has 25 franchisees, blames the poor response on the slump in the southern property market, which has hit the home removals business hard.
Nonetheless, it plans to appoint nine more franchisees by next June, recruiting among removals companies that have at least three removal vehicles and two years' experience.
It has recently taken on agents in Canterbury, Edinburgh, south-west London, Newcastle and Glasgow.