Franchise sector grows 20% during recession

Posted 07/02/2014

A recent report reveals that the franchise sector has grown by 20% since 2008, at a time when the UK economy shrunk by 2.5% for the same period.

The 2013 NatWest British Franchise Association (BFA) Franchise Survey showed that UK franchising was responsible for contributing around £13.7bn to the UK economy in the last year. This is equivalent to just less than one per cent of UK GDP. UK franchising also created over 250,000 full-time jobs.

This is a real UK success story, as four out of five UK franchising brands are UK owned, and one in four are exporting their brand overseas, with 90% of franchisors predicting that their trading conditions will improve.

Damian Humphrey, Partner in Ashtons Legal’s specialist Franchising team, said: “These figures are reflected in the volume and type of work that our franchisor clients involve us with. We are helping more and more of our clients take their brand overseas. We are also seeing more business move into franchising really successfully. Hopefully these figures can be a platform for really getting the message out about UK franchising and its success.”

The survey is conducted every year by Natwest and the BFA. Read more here.