Launch of the Fruit and Veg Man Franchise

Ashtons Franchise is very pleased to announce the launch of The Fruit and Veg Man franchise!

Their story is one of inspiration and has culminated into a franchise proposition where franchisees can both be their own boss and help support a local community. What’s not to love about that?

Sanjay’s Story..

Amidst the prolonged lockdown in the spring and summer of 2020, Sanjay Roy, like many individuals, found himself being furloughed. Instead of surrendering to endless Netflix marathons, he took it upon himself to help others. His objective was two-fold: ensuring that people had access to nutritious, top-notch fruits and vegetables, while also raising funds for his local hospice.

Thus The Fruit and Veg Man was born. Sanjay built excellent relationship with local suppliers, and from the outset, provided high quality produce to his local Bedfordshire area. The business was really three fold: serving the community in person at local markets, delivering vegetable boxes to homes and businesses and raising money for local charities. Sanjay’s charity of choice is Keech Hospice Care, and over the years he has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for them.

Demand for the business grew quickly, and in July 2021 Sanjay contacted Ashtons Franchise Consulting with a view to franchising the business. However, when he had a conversation with the Managing Consultant, he received an unexpected response: “No, you are not ready.” Naturally, this came as a surprise to him since their role was to assist in acquiring new paying clients.

So, what were the reasons Sanjay was told he was “not ready”?

There were 3 mains reasons:

• The business was still in the developmental stage, actively seeking its ideal customer base and learning from mistakes. As a result, there were areas that required improvement in terms of systems and operations.
• Insufficient historical trading performance across all sales channels, making it difficult to demonstrate the business’s year-round sustainability and its appeal for others to buy into.
• Lack of protection for trading name and branding: Sanjay had not yet taken steps to protect his trading name and branding, which left the business vulnerable to potential copycat operations

What steps did Sanjay take to be ready?

Sanjay heeded the initial advice given by Ashtons Franchise Consulting and took action to implement the required modifications. With newfound confidence, he returned in Summer 2022 and boldly declared, “Now I’m ready. Let’s franchise this business and teach me how to become a great franchisor.”

Ashtons managing consultant Phil Mowat worked with Sanjay over the following months – initially modelling and creating a strategy plan for how the business will work as a franchise, then moving onto the franchise development  programme, which included the creation of all the important documentation and required processes, and then finished off with successfully launching the franchise opportunity via franchise websites and social channels.

Now, in July 2023, following the launch of The Fruit and Veg Man franchise, Sanjay has successfully established three franchisees and transformed his business significantly compared to its humble beginnings just three years ago. He has made the most of every experience and wholeheartedly embraced every new opportunity.

A really special business has been created here, and Ashtons Franchise are very proud of what has been achieved so far. Managing consultant Phil Mowat comments, “It’s been fantastic working with Sanjay to help get The Fruit and Veg Man up and running as a franchise – he’s ambitious, hard-working and above all 100% focused on what he’s looking to achieve and the people he’s looking to help. This is most definitely a franchise to keep an eye on!”

Sanjay comments, “What made me decide to use Ashtons initially was the number of times they (Nick Williams) politely told me that I was not in a position to franchise! The more times I was scorned, the more times I took the feedback that Nick gave me and used it as fuel to work on my business to get it in a position to franchise. When I was ready to franchise, I was assigned Phil Mowat to help us franchise the business. Phil’s professionalism helped us take our business from a fledgling box delivery service to the award winning, 3 franchisee strong behemoth that it is today. A big part of our success has come down to Ashtons’ straight talking, no-nonsense approach to business. They helped us navigate all the technical aspects of franchising and Phil’s experience both as a consultant AND a franchisor has been invaluable.

We are now a disruptive, market wrecking and innovative business. We have had well over 250 applications for our franchises within 6 weeks of our franchise recruitment campaign going live and will be using Ashtons to help us develop our business to the next level, which is to franchise nationally!”

Do you care deeply about your local community and want to provide an excellent service that makes people happy? Find out more about The Fruit and Veg Man franchise opportunity.

Has Sanjay’s story inspired you to franchise your own business?