My background is in financial commodities and I appreciated its customer centric qualities. Filta has an immense customer value proposition and having seen this for myself first hand out on a job with a former colleague, I immediate said, how can I buy a franchise and when can I start?
I bought the New Jersey franchise business in 2019 which was a start-up. Basically, I walked off the commodity desk on a Friday and started with Filta on Monday!
We grew the business very quickly – from $170k revenue in 2019 to $3.5m last year. How did I achieve this? By breaking down all barriers – real and artificial. Access to capital was also an important factor. And then of course, making strategic decisions around how to utilise that capital in the New Jersey business. We invested heavily in operations, ensuring we had capacity. We never left a customer waiting for anything. As we started to fill up, we just developed more vans and routes. And then we started to focus more on optimising cash collection, furthering growth.
The referral side of our business is a proven way to sell. We’re bringing a fresh approach to a traditionally old-fashioned industry. There are some chefs and kitchen managers, especially the more established and seasoned ones, who have a certain way of doing things. They’re not as innovative or willing to hear new approaches until they see them in action. And then they wonder why didn’t they make the change to Filta sooner.
The key is to get in front of customers and talk to them about the value propositions for our range of services. Customers understand the importance of disposing of a smelly waste bin; health & safety in the kitchen, and how much oil they are using. We focus the conversation on how to assist them to solve these issues and work with them without even talking about the cost of a service. From there, it’s referral based, and the word spreads quickly.
When FiltaMax was introduced to the network last year I was really excited at the opportunity to say, wow, this is what Filta could look like in the future. Franchisees were saying “I thought I was at the end of my run, but I’m actually right in the middle or I’ve actually got a lot more to go here”. So it was a good – what I call – “gut check” moment for everybody in the network when they saw the potential, and a wake-up call for some franchisees too.
On 1 January 2024 I joined Filta’s corporate team in Orlando as Chief Operating Officer, with responsibility for operations and sales. What attracted me to the role was the opportunity to put my stamp on the brand. I’ve always been an advocate of a rising tide lifts all boats mentality. If we strengthen the entire network and continue to build revenue and brand awareness, that helps everybody on a bigger level. However, what’s attractive about Filta Max is that it has a measurement of objective success, irrespective of the type and location of the business.
It’s a unique experience, being both part of the corporate leadership team but also a franchisee. While I still own my Filta franchise, my general manager has taken the management of the business from me, operating on an arm’s-length basis.
