Developing Excellence - the history of the New Zealand Franchise Awards

2024 marks the 29th year of the New Zealand Franchise Awards ­– 29 years of entry and effort, excitement and achievement, happy faces streaked with tears of joy and brave masks worn to hide disappointment.

Franchise System winners have come from all places and in all industries, international corporations and home-grown start-ups. Franchisees of the Year have come from Northland to Timaru and include Maori and Pakeha, as well as immigrants from India, South Africa, China, North America and Europe. They are a true reflection not just of modern New Zealand, but of the variety and vibrancy of franchising.

Franchise New Zealand has been involved in the Awards right from the start and, among all the franchisee winners over the years, three are particularly memorable for me. Shiraz Hajee, the 2005 Franchisee of the Year, who started his business career selling handbags from the pavement in India, Bill Sampson, whose whole whanau seemed to be involved in his business, and Ivy Joe, the first person ever to win the Supreme Franchisee of the Year award three times in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

And New Zealand franchising as a whole owes a huge debt of gratitude to Stirling Sports and its founder, Colin Taylor, who won the first Franchise System of the Year title back in 1995. In their quest for excellence, Stirling Sports had previously entered the Australian franchise awards and Colin was keen to see New Zealand franchising benefit from the same public celebration and scrutiny.

Many others have contributed to the success of the Awards over the years, including numerous volunteer judges, but three names in particular stand out – David McCulloch, Win Robinson and John Foreman, all of whom gave generously of their time to put the event on a sound footing (and, in John’s case, create memorably-themed Awards evenings). The Awards have been supported by Westpac almost from the start, and they continue as major sponsor to this day.

Quality Control

Founded in 1995, the Awards were always designed to promote and celebrate the development of a successful franchise sector in New Zealand, and to encourage best practice in franchising ahead of the formation of the Franchise Association the following year (previously, New Zealand had been a chapter of the Australian-based Association).

While some franchise awards internationally seem to be based upon reputation rather than systems and results (even today, some countries call for entries a scant two weeks before the winners are announced rather than four months as is normal here), the movers behind the initial New Zealand Franchise Awards were keen to ensure that the New Zealand Awards had real relevance to franchisors and franchise buyers.

After establishing the concept, in 1997 the judging process was further developed using a new system based upon the Malcolm Baldrige international quality criteria and with the assistance of one of the few New Zealanders to have won such an award. The criteria measure entrants across six key areas:

• Leadership & Planning
• Customers & Market Focus
• Information & Analysis
• People
• Processes
• Results

One of the fundamental principles is that just being the best entry in a category is not enough to guarantee a win if the entry doesn't match up to the overall quality standards demanded by the judges. This means that, in some years, no awards have been made in certain categories. Equally, good quality entries may be rewarded with a HIghly Commended title even if they don't win.

Awards categories have changed several times since 1995 with different titles being introduced, although differentiating between North and South Island franchisees, and international and home-grown systems, was dropped many years ago. Today, the aim is to recognise the best franchisors and franchisees in New Zealand, regardless of origin – and winners can be assured that their businesses are truly world-class.

Prestige

The New Zealand Franchise Awards have themselves gained in prestige over the years, with a massive 440 people attending the Awards dinner in 2001 – the first year that the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, attended. She enjoyed herself so much that she attended again in 2004 and 2007. Reflecting the importance of franchising to the New Zealand economy, the dinner has also been attended by various Ministers for Small Business.

Franchisor winners can be assured of widespread coverage and find the awards offer a considerable benefit when it comes to recruitment, while franchisee winners are able to use their new-found fame to generate local PR and business.

But, most importantly of all, the awards process itself has helped franchisors and franchisees improve their businesses, whether they are winners or not. By requiring entrants to take a hard look at their business and subject it to external scrutiny, the Awards have become not just a celebration of excellence, but a driver of continuous improvement – just as Colin Taylor intended.

The first 25 years of winners

The above video was produced to mark the first 25 years of the awards in 2019. Below is a summary of the major Award winners over the years - titles are also awarded in individual industry categories. You'll find links to reports of all the previous Awards naming all category winners at the bottom of this list.

Full results of previous years are available here:

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 

2012/13/14 - triple winner Ivy Joe

2005 - Shiraz Hajee with Lianne Dalziel

2009 - Bill and Georgina Sampson

2018 - Kevin and Sheryl Jones

1995 - Robyn Hulena

1995 - Bruce Grant and Judith Friar with Franchise New Zealand's Simon Lord

1995 - The man who inspired it all, Colin Taylor

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