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The Government’s austerity measures won’t drastically improve trading conditions in the short term, but some blinds retailers are still doing very well... Apollo Blinds’ Gary Chambers explains why
 The simple answer as to why Apollo Blinds is still trading very well is that we are a franchise.
It’s the best of both worlds for people who want to run their own business selling window blinds and other related products. They still have the independence to run their own business and make their own decisions, leaving them in full control. And, furthermore, they get the reward for their endeavours in the profit they generate. This is the main reason why virtually all of our franchise owners wanted to be self-employed in the first place.
And in that world they are the kings and queens of their own destiny.
But they also have another world which coexists where they can rely on us to give them a distinct advantage – which can be the difference between commercial life and death. There are four key areas to this world.
The brand
The Apollo Blinds brand has been established for nearly 40 years and has become a household name across most of the UK.
We promote the brand centrally at a national level and are regularly featured on TV, in lifestyle print media and online. This is also complemented by all the awareness of the brand that our franchise owners generate at a local level.
In the last couple of years in particular we increased our investment and doubled our efforts to increase our brand awareness – at a time when other companies were tightening their belts and scaling back their marketing.
And this awareness is paying off – not just in the financial returns this is generating for our franchise owners but, more pleasingly, in the anecdotal feedback we are getting. In uncertain times the message coming back loud and clear from consumers is that they want to buy from a reputable brand which is here today and will also be here tomorrow.
Our collections
Being part of the Hunter Douglas Group has its privileges. Access to world-class technical development centres and a network of suppliers stretching around the globe is the basis for our collections. Add feedback from the franchise network and you have another key ingredient that ensures that the Apollo collections are produced market-ready.
We can therefore confidently go to market with what we believe to be the most comprehensive collections which are innovative and inspiring, and satisfy consumer demand.
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 A case in point
One great example of this is the individual support for our franchise owner George Stewart in Hamilton, Scotland. George was offered the opportunity to supply an article to a local bagazine but, by his own admission, he can't write editorial for toffee. Our PR and marketing team was able to draft a bespoke article just for him and it duly appeared in print in the local magazine in Hamilton. Within a week of the article appearing, he had secured £2,500 of orders which came as a direct response to customers seeing that article. If he didn't have had the enquiries and subsequent orders drop into his lap.
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Sales and marketing support
In addition to the brand and the collections, there’s all the support available to our franchise owners. On the surface some of these may appear to be one-man bands but nothing could be further from the truth – they have a whole team right behind them. Specialists in sales, installation, marketing, products and business development are always on hand to provide mentoring support and guidance.
And the focus of this support is clearly geared around helping to increase the number of enquiries that come into their business and providing the tools to generate the sale.
A network of friends
The final piece of the franchising jigsaw is the camaraderie of the network. Many of our franchise owners are in constant touch with one another for all sorts of reasons. They pass work to one another, share resources such as installers and help with tricks of the trade. But most of all they chew the fat together – because they are after all in the same business but are not in direct competition with each other in areas where they trade.
I said at the start of this article that the answer to trading very well through tough economic conditions was franchising. Can you see why now? If you are an independent retailer who wants to give your business a boost by becoming part of a franchise network then there’s no better place to start than by visiting
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