Bradford river Hire wins ‘Franchisor of the Year - Silver award’

Specialist logistics recruiter Driver Hire, which has its head office on Bradford Business Park in Bradford, has won the ‘Franchisor of the Year – Silver’ award at the recent bfa HSBC British Franchise Awards,run by the British Franchise Association and sponsored by HSBC Bank.

Driver Hire offers temporary and permanent driving jobs, non-driving work, driver CPC training and license acquisition services.

The company opened in West Yorkshire in 1983, initially supplying temporary drivers to local transport firms.

Since then, they’ve grown to become the UK’s largest specialist logistics recruiter, providing a wide range of drivers and non-driving staff to organisations throughout the UK. Driver Hire has 84 franchisees, covering 93 territories plus ten company-owned offices.

Entry to the awards was via written submission. Finalists were then interviewed by a panel of industry expert judges.

In the ‘Franchisor of the Year’ category, judges were looking for a franchisor who was a strong advocate of ethical franchising, successfully navigating economic challenges and changing consumer demands, and who was able to evidence a strong infrastructure and support for their network, ensuring franchisees had the best environment to succeed and reach their full potential.

It was important that the entire franchisee lifecycle was a priority, ensuring franchisees were not only embedded well into the system but that ongoing engagement allowed them to realise a good return on their investment through resale. Driver Hire ticked all the boxes, winning the Silver award.

Described by many as the ‘Oscars’ of the franchising world, the bfa HSBC British Franchise Awards were held at a glittering black-tie event at the Vox hotel in Birmingham, which was attended by over 400 of the biggest names in the UK franchising industry.

Graham Duckworth, Driver Hire’s franchise sales director, said: “‘It feels amazing to have won the Silver award tonight, especially on the back of our Gold award in 2019. We have a strong business with great franchisees, a very strong office staff and a network that is really dedicated to providing a good service. The future of Driver Hire looks really exciting.

“The logistics sector is ever-changing, which means new opportunities – for example in the ongoing growth of online retail or demand for our new products such as customer-facing IT services to support business efficiency or our license acquisition service. We firmly believe the best is still to come.”

Speaking on the night, Pip Wilkins, CEO of the British Franchising Association said: “Huge congratulations to Graham and everyone at Driver Hire for winning the ‘Franchisor of the Year – Silver’ award.

“They have worked extraordinarily hard to grow their businesses in an ethical, sustainable way, supporting their franchisees as they grow and their efforts have been rightfully recognised tonight.”

She added: “As the oldest franchise association in the United Kingdom, we work hard to maintain the standards of ethical franchising in this country. Franchising contributes over £17 billion to the country’s GDP and provides employment to over 700,000 people.

“Franchise operations are perfectly built to withstand the rigours of even the harshest financial storms, relying as they do on following tried and tested business models. We send congratulations to all our winners and thank them for upholding the standards of the association and being such outstanding examples of the best that franchising has to offer.”

Gillian Morris, Head of Franchising, HSBC, said: ‘Choosing a winner from the many entries we received this year was not easy, but it gives us at HSBC a great insight into the health and prosperity of franchise businesses in the UK.

“They are strong, innovative, brave and resilient and we applaud them for their hard work and achievements. Tonight, we were treated to the crème de la crème of the British franchise industry and we could not be prouder to sponsor these awards.

“We wish them all well for 2023 and look forward to meeting new franchisors and franchisees at the awards next year.”