GroutPro - grout restoration adds SMILES TO TILES

Duane Moul is thrilled to be able to spend breakfast and pre-bed time with his first baby. In his previous job, he had to leave the house by 7am and wasn’t home until at least 6pm, but five months after his purchase of a GroutPro franchise, all that has changed. ‘My initial goal was to replace my salary and enjoy my new daughter, too,’ he explains. ‘I’m working better hours, working fewer hours and earning just as much as I did before.’

Duane had been the operations manager for a large cleaning company with 300 people reporting to him. ‘But I was tired of other people’s problems and reporting to someone else all the time – I wanted to be my own boss. Then last year I was in a branch of Westpac preparing a tender and I picked up a copy of Franchise New Zealand magazine. It had a profile of GroutPro and I could see the potential in the service instantly.

‘Having run a real estate business as well, I’d seen numerous instances of poorly-sealed or maintained grout in bathrooms,’ he says. ‘Grout gets dirty – period. What GroutPro has is an easy and cheap way of fixing that without the hassle and expense of regrouting or retiling. It really appealed to me as a business, and I just knew there was a market out there so I contacted the company.’

Duane then phoned around a dozen of the 35 GroutPro franchisees and asked them about the market and the quality of the franchise itself. ‘They all said positive things, so I reckoned it was the right move.’

Big Market, Little Competition

GroutPro is the only franchise in the country specialising in grout and tile restoration as well as after-installation tile care. Founded by Joe Hesmondhalgh and Rob Howard in 2009, it has been an instant success for both customers and franchisees. ‘Nobody was specialising in tile care in New Zealand yet it is a billion dollar industry in the USA and Australia,’ explains Rob. ‘If you don’t seal grout properly it becomes stained and bacteria-laden. Tilers don’t like doing sealing work because it means returning to every site after the grout has cured, so they either ignore it or suggest a DIY product to their customers. The end result is that there are thousands of bathrooms with tired, dirty old grout. The response to GroutPro’s unique colourseal process has been so great that today tilers and tiling shops are actually recommending us to their customers.’

Having owned a business before, Duane set about establishing his new franchise properly on the Kapiti Coast. ‘The franchise is very reasonably priced (the investment is $28,950+gst) but rather than use up cash reserves I wanted to ensure we had enough working capital to live on for a few months while I got the business established. Evie, my wife, was working full time, but would then be going on maternity leave so I took out a loan to finance the purchase. In business terms, it works out very efficiently.’

Everything You Need To Know

GroutPro franchisees start with a week long training course which Duane describes as ‘absolutely first class. It covers everything from hands-on operation to marketing and quoting, and I left it fully-prepared and ready to run. I’m probably the proof of the pudding – as well as having got my own franchise producing great returns in just a few months, I’m now helping to train the next franchisees.’

Perhaps the most important part of the role is getting the message out there to potential customers. The GroutPro process cleans, rejuvenates and re-colours old grout and prevents it staining again. Once people know about it then it really sells itself, so the challenge is getting to people – tilers and tile shops as well as home owners. Once people realise what can be done to their tiles and grout for a fraction of the cost of what they feared, they are so relieved – and when they see the results of what we do, they’re very happy indeed.’

Apart from marketing skills, Duane says the essential elements for success are a good business head and a bit of DIY experience.  ‘Everything is covered in the training, and if you’ve done jobs on your own home, you’ll pick it up quickly. I’ve stuck to the system and used the marketing techniques Joe and Rob have put together and they have kept the phone ringing with new business from the start. As well as their support, we now have an intranet with an enormous database which allows all franchisees to exchange essential information, post questions or discuss issues. So we are always able to support each other and that adds up to an even better service for our customers.’

There is still growing demand for GroutPro’s unique service nationwide. ‘Duane’s shown just how fast you can build a successful business of your own, so give Joe or me a call if you think this might be the business for you,’ invites Rob. ‘We’d love to hear from you – and so would home owners in your area…’

This advertorial is taken from Franchise New Zealand magazine Volume 20 Issue 1 

Contact details for GroutPro

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