Sydney franchise wins Snap crown

Written on the 14 August 2013

Snap Eastwood has been named franchise of the year for a 'solutions over products' strategy and focus on higher-margin work.

The Sydney franchise claimed the Sales Achievement Award ahead of 156 other stores after posting the highest revenue in 2012-13, excluding major corporate accounts.

Co-owners Jason O'Connor and Lisa Dupen also won the national award in 2007, which was the same year they bought the business.

Snap Eastwood earned $2.9 million in 2012-13. O'Connor told ProPrint that turnover was about $3 million when they bought the franchise and later peaked at $3.2 million.

He said the decline was partly due to the challenging market and partly because the franchise surrendered about $100,000 of unprofitable work.

"We've tried to base our business model on higher-margin business. We thought these low-margin guys were taking up a lot of time when we thought we could go out there and chase higher-value work," he said.

"Our main thing is to make life easier for our customers and if you can do that, they tend to pay a bit of a premium."

O'Connor said the 14-staff operation planned to focus on one-to-one marketing services for its smaller clients.He said a lot of those businesses were open to outsourcing their marketing because they were so focused on day-to-day operations and too small to have dedicated marketing staff.

The marketing includes regular print collateral, newspaper ads, EDMs and websites, he said.

O'Connor told ProPrint that there was a lot of potential in helping clients maximise their websites, because many of them were "online brochures" rather than active sales tools.

"We really try to structure ourselves on relationships with our customers and try to be relevant to them, rather than just a print supplier," he said.

"So the sales people are based more on offering solutions than taking orders. We structure our business around being a one-stop shop."

 

AWARDS

Sales Achievement Award

Eastwood (NSW)

Sales Achievement Award finalists

West Melbourne (Vic), Southport (Qld), Osborne Park (WA), Adelaide Flinders Street (SA)

Regional Sales Achievement Award

Wollongong (NSW)

Non-print Sales Award

Caulfield South (Vic)

Sales Person of the Year

Geoff Phillips, Applecross (WA)

Centre Manager of the Year

Damien Robertson, Norwest (NSW)

Community Achievement Award

Damien & Leanne Cook, Castlereagh Street and Silverawater (NSW)

New Franchise Owner of the Year

Ian & Sue Mackie, Dandenong South (Vic)

Multi-franchise Owner of the Year

Judd Duhigg & Simon Morcom, Queen Street and Maroochydoore (Qld)

Star Award

Rod Harrington, Laverton North (Vic)

Hall of Fame inductees

Jason O'Connor & Lisa Dupen, Eastwood (NSW)

Paddy Thompson Award

Justin & Aniella Leeks, Osborne Park (WA)

Ireland Recognition Award

Connor Smith, Sandyford (Ireland)