Weed Man states that existing franchises accounted for 28 of the new territories added last year, which helped drive the franchise growth.
“Weed Man has grown rapidly over the past few years and as our brand awareness has strengthened with it, more consumers are turning to our franchisees to better their lawns,” said Jennifer Lemcke, COO of Turf Holdings Inc., the company that owns the expansion rights for Weed Man USA.
In 2016, Lemcke noted, revenues surpassed $91 million, a 9.74 percent increase over 2015.
Along with receiving yearly recognition as one of the nation’s top franchise investments from both Forbes and Entrepreneur magazines, Lemcke says that the company also received the Franchise Times Zor Award for being one of 2017’s Best Franchise to Buy.
“Our existing franchisees account for nearly 75 percent of the new territories we added in 2016,” she said. “They take pride in being the No. 1 local source for any lawn care needs, and are expanding their territories to bring these communities the high-level care businesses and home owners are seeking.”
In order to take advantage of Weed Man’s declining royalty fee stream, existing franchises are adding more trucks to their fleets, outside of consumer demand. Through this royalty fee structure, franchises pay a reduced amount when they add a truck on the road. Seventy-five percent of the fee is paid with three trucks, and after four trucks it is reduced to 50 percent.
Corbin and Audrey Schlatter, husband and wife team and recent recipients of the company’s 2016 Award of Excellence, expanded their territory in Columbus to include Greene County and Dayton, Ohio. The Award of Excellence is the highest internal honor a Weed Man franchise can receive, as it symbolizes operational excellence in all aspects of the franchise. Together, the Schlatters have earned over $2 million in annual sales.
“We noticed a large amount of our potential customer base was in nearby Greene County,” said Corbin Schlatter. “We took the interest from the local residents as a sure sign that the growth opportunity would be backed by the popular demand. Since then, we have set up a local office to recruit part-time and seasonal workers for the new service area.”
Weed Man also plans to boost franchise growth by expanding its independent operators who have added the franchise to their existing business. Most often, these are landscape, lawn care, golf course management companies and pest control. To diversify revenue streams and ensure the long-term value of their businesses, many independent operators purchase a Weed Man USA franchise. Currently there are 194 franchise agreements across the U.S., and all are independently owned and operated.
