New FANZ Board takes up its responsibilities following the AGM
At its first meeting of the FANZ Board following the annual elections, Board members elect the Chair and Vice Chair positions for the following year.
For the coming 2015/16 year Brad Jacobs, Director of The Coffee Club, New Zealand, was elected as Chairman and Callum Floyd, Director of Franchize Consultants was elected as Vice Chairman.
In his message to Members, Brad Jacobs, who was Vice Chairman for the previous year said, “Our Board this year draws on a wealth of knowledge in the franchise and commercial sectors and in my view brings a fantastic balance of knowledge and experience to the table. It is comprised
of four franchisors, a very experienced franchise consultant, an equally experienced Barrister and Solicitor and our newest member, a banker with wide experience right across the finance sector.
“There are a number of challenges currently facing our business sector, including such things as the Auckland housing bubble and the continuing volatility of milk product prices. We heard at this year’s Conference that whilst the dairy market was in decline, the service sector had been performing fairly well; however, we are now starting to see a general slowing in the economy. It will be important this Board remains cognisant of the markets we all operate in and makes fiscally sensible decisions about how we support our members. I believe the broad range of skills we bring to the table will place us in good stead in this respect.”
FANZ at the World Franchise Council and Asia Pacific Franchise Confederation meetings in Brisbane
The World Franchise Council (WFC) is an association of 43 National Franchise Associations whose purpose is to encourage international understanding and cooperation in the protection and promotion of franchising worldwide, with the Asia Pacific Franchise Confederation (APFC) being the grouping of 12 of those Associations in our region.
The October meetings of the WFC and APFC were held in Brisbane from October 8th-10th to coincide with the Franchise Council of Australia’s (FCA) 2015 Convention. The reports from around the world told of a wide variety of franchise activity and government involvement, but a great many common issues were found amongst delegates and were discussed in depth at a number of breakout sessions during the three days of meetings.
Both the WFC and the APFC are attracting new national franchise associations to become members and to fulfil the necessary requirements for admission. One of the aims of both bodies is to help enhance the development and reputation of franchising, especially in those countries where franchising is, as yet, not fully developed. FANZ Executive Director, Graham Billings, said that at the meetings of these two bodies, the important role that the franchise business model can play in the economic development of countries as well as the opportunity to become agents of social change was high in the list of agenda items.
Westpac New Zealand Franchise Awards 2015-2016
This year will be the 21st anniversary of these awards that will culminate in a Gala Dinner and Awards presentation on the 14th November to be held at the Rendezvous Grand Hotel in Auckland.
The Westpac New Zealand Franchise Awards are designed to recognise franchising’s highest performers and provide them with valuable business and marketing advantages. The process of entering invites entrants to critique their business using key performance measures within the internationally recognised Baldrige methodology for business excellence awards. The Franchise Association of New Zealand has been working closely with the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation since 2007 and has successfully upgraded the National Franchise Awards process, criteria and structure. As some background to this relationship – the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation administers the New Zealand Business Excellence Awards which recognise the top performing organisations in New Zealand. In past years many of our Franchise Awards winners have gone on to enter the New Zealand Business Awards with great success. The Awards incorporate a four stage assessment process.
A total of 30 Awards are available to be won. These are split into Categories (6 Individual Awards, 3 Community Awards, 5 Special Category Awards and 14 Industry Related Awards. The Industry Category winners are then automatically eligible for the 2 Supreme Awards (Franchise System and Franchisee of the Year). This year’s winners will be published in the next issue and will be available to view on the Association’s web site the following Monday.