WINNING TEAM

Pack & Send’s Riccarton franchisee Brad McFarlane recently took home the hat-trick of Pack & Send’s Franchisee of the Year, the Metro Sales award and Marketing award. “I couldn’t wait to leave the presentation event to share this success with my incredible team members,” he grins.

“It was a huge honour to be recognised not just for running a profitable store but also for how we’ve grown and operated as a team over the past two years. That meant a lot to me and to Blain O’Loughlin, our business development manager, our customer service manager Emily Houben, and George Feast, our youngest staff member in customer service.”

When Brad purchased Pack & Send Riccarton in September 2023 he was not just stepping into a successful business – he was stepping into history. Opened in 2008, Riccarton was New Zealand’s very first Pack & Send service centre. An attached warehouse provides an additional third party logistics (3PL) income stream through storing, packing and distribution for customers.

“I didn’t want to change what was working,” says Brad modestly, “I wanted to elevate it. I lived in Nelson at the time, so that meant hiring experienced staff who knew the store and brand inside out. I was lucky to be able to bring in team members who had already worked at Riccarton as well as others who had worked with the Pack & Send head office. This gave me more than a trusted operational base while I ran things remotely, it gave me an award-winning team.”

A life in business

“I learnt my own work ethic at my dad’s Dunedin garage, pumping gas after school and during holidays. I left school at 17 wanting to own a business and took a pizza delivery job as a starting point. I didn’t buy that business, but it did give me bad driving habits,” confesses Brad. “At 23, I moved to Christchurch and bought my first gas station franchise business. I further invested in that business by purchasing the building it operated out of – a strategy I repeated over the next 20 years.

“We left Christchurch for a few years so my teenaged son Enzo could be closer to family in Nelson. Having successfully run a Christchurch gas station from Nelson, I was not put off doing the same thing with Pack & Send Riccarton when the opportunity fell across my desk.

“Although not actively looking for change, I was lucky to have some inside knowledge as a customer and through a friendship with a former Pack & Send executive. Freight and logistics were something I was interested in, too.”

These guys really know what to do

Brad’s Pack & Send customer experience began with shipping a large oven from a café he owned in Nelson. Impressed with how well they’d handled that, he next called on Pack & Send to deliver home some original art purchased in Auckland.

“It wasn’t hugely expensive, but I was stressed about it arriving damage-free. Unpacking the painting, my first thought was, ‘These guys really know what to do’.  Now I’m one of these guys, but it’s my staff who really know packaging. My focus is on marketing and growing the business. Whether it’s testing new ad channels, refining the customer experience or exploring B2B partnerships – we keep experimenting. That’s how we find our edge for sending anything, anywhere.”

There are Pack & Send opportunities throughout the country and as Brad has shown, even if you are taking over an already successful store, there’s always room to improve the business.

Finally, wise words from Brad, “Look at what you can modernise, measure and multiply. Build a team you can trust. And if you’re thinking of stepping back or managing remotely, it can work, but only if your franchisor support is excellent, you can rely on other franchisees putting you right,and your systems and people are solid – like my award-winning team.”  

See this advertorial on page 32 of Franchise New Zealand magazine Year 34 Issue 04 

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