As a home care franchise, it’s particularly exciting to win a prestigious award that recognises how well we look after our franchisees. It’s even more thrilling when we’re named as the top franchise in the UK not just once but four times! That’s exactly what’s happened – Home Instead has once again been named as the No. 1 franchise company in the HSBC UK Elite Franchise Top 100.
The Elite Franchise Top 100 is the definitive list that celebrates excellence in franchises throughout the UK. Each year, it looks at many different types of franchisors across the nation and decides on the Top 100. Various key criteria are used when judging the franchises. These include: longevity; financial performance; the size of the network; contributions to the local community; franchise support (including training, mentoring and resources); innovation; and plans for the next five years. A large, independent panel of judges from the franchise sector assesses the results and then whittles them down to produce the Top 100 list of franchisors.
One of the key factors that have enabled us to gain this amazing achievement is our large team at National Office. It enables us to provide dedicated and ongoing support to our 245+ franchise offices across the UK. They employ over 10,000 care professionals, who in turn support more than 16,000 clients.
And it doesn’t stop there. Our network continues to grow, enabling us to offer our companionship-led care services to even more communities across the country. A great example of our commitment to care was shown during the pandemic. We managed to continue to deliver quality care throughout, ensuring that our elderly clients were safe, well and socially connected at home, while our Care Professionals were had the necessary protection.
Being named as the UK’s leading franchisor is a major boost to our mission: ‘To be the most admired care company through changing the face of ageing’. The award also has a knock-on effect. It means that more and more people want to become a Home Instead franchisee, which in turn enables us to spread our message of home-led care even more widely. Even more importantly, we can only succeed if our local franchises are also successful. So this nationwide recognition is also a reflection of the hard work and commitment that’s shown at a local level by our brilliant franchisees.
Ruth Brown, our director of business development, says: “To have been named as the number one franchise in the UK for the fourth time really is an honour. It is testament not only to the strength of our National Office team and the opportunity we have nurtured, but also to our amazing network, the success they have achieved and the wonderful culture they have created.”