Leading Australian building firm NU-Steel Homes is seeking franchisees in Queensland and New South Wales to join the business as it expands to meet increasing demand for its new homes, despite a continuing industry slump.
While building approvals nationally slowed significantly following the 2009 Global Financial Crisis, since 2007 when the business was purchased by current owners, Nu-Steel Homes has year on year continued to experience steady growth, with work in the pipeline now six times greater than it was in 2007.
Nu-Steel Homes Managing Director, Ash Richardson said they were now looking for up to 40 franchisees to manage exclusive areas.
Mr Richardsaid said Nu-Steel Homes had developed a comprehensive high-tech franchising model, which would provide franchisees with strong support and reduced risks, when compared to other franchise business models.
“Nu-Steel Homes, a trusted Australian residential building brand with a 30-year history, has developed a modern approach to franchising, operating a high-tech central system and using preferred builders so franchisees can focus on sales and client services,” Mr Richardson said.
“This means together we can continue to provide more customers with innovative homes that are tailored to their needs.”
The Nu-Steel Homes business model sees the company, and not the franchisee, carrying the margin risk on every build. The single biggest risk for local building franchisees is profit margin; either from poor costings, time blowouts due to bad weather or unforeseen problems during the build.
“Nu-Steel Homes is the first Master Franchisor in Australia to take on the profit risk per job. This protects both the franchisee and the end consumer and makes building a Nu-Steel Home a far more attractive option for what is for most people this single biggest life investment,” Mr Richardson said.
The areas where franchises are available including Mackay and the Gold Coast in Queensland and Newcastle, Sydney’s Northern Beaches and Albury in New South Wales have been selected because Nu-Steel Homes already has strong demand in these areas.
Mr Richardson said there was no denying that the broader building industry had been through a tough time but Nu-Steel Homes’ approach has set it apart.
“Our model is working and consumer clients are attracted to reducing risk even more so in the current climate, and by building up a suite of services that beats the competition we are also positioning ourselves well for when the market cycle returns to a boom.
“For these two reasons we believe this is an excellent time to become a Nu-Steel Homes franchisee.”
Mr Richardson said the high-tech central system provided full support to the franchisee so they could focus predominantly on sales and local lead generation while the Master Franchisor has an international, experienced team to take care of design, engineering, selections, manufacturing, procurement, scheduling, transport, returns and warranties.
“Not only is this good new for the franchisee but also for the consumer because operating this way means bigger buying power so the consumer pays less.
“Most of the bigger building companies still operate on a local procurement model so the consumer ends up paying more if they want a high quality home,” he said.
Mr Richardson said the franchising sector had improved significantly over the last 20 years and Nu-Steel Homes aimed to be at the forefront of innovation and service to both end consumer and its franchisees.
“Once we find the perfect local franchisee partners, we will have them all up and running on the world leading Salesforce CRM platform plus they will be fully trained and kitted out with an iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.”
For more information about Nu-Steel Homes visit www.nusteel.com.au or to enquired about a Nu-Steel Homes franchise, email franchising@nshq.com.au.
