2015 Annual Franchise Review: More New Blood, Outside Sales Representation, Mailing, Wide-Format Print Services, and Other Trends for 2015 “This business changed from a manufacturing business to a sales and marketing business,” observes a franchisee who has returned after an eight-year hiatus. by Mark Vruno For its Allegra Network members, the past year slowly but ended with significant growth, according to Bob Milroy, president of the Marketing & Print Division of parent Alliance Franchise Brands, “even as overall demand for printing remained flat. More than half of our members registered gains, with more than a quarter of our centers posting greater than 10 percent gains for the year. Six of our eight regions posted sales gains in 2014,” Milroy said. Notably, digital color printing, accounting for 25 percent of overall sales, surpassed 4- and 1-color offset printing (19.3 percent) in 2014. Brokered services, while down slightly to 17.4 percent from 20.8 percent in 2013, still represents a substantial amount of business being conducted. (See pie chart on page 12.) While AlphaGraphics’ new leader, Aaron Grohs, did not chime in for this report, watch for an “Executive Q&A” with the former Consolidated Graphics executive coming up in an upcoming QP issue. System-wide figures were We see clear evidence that the depressed market of the past few years is definitely on the upswing,” proclaimed Jay Groot, president of the International Center for Entrepreneurial Development (ICED), which includes Kwik Kopy. Indeed, the five major quick-print franchises posted modest to double-digit growth in 2014 among their 2,164 print sites worldwide; 1,801 in North America. Global sales totaled nearly $1.9 billion, while in North America the sum was $1.2 billion. Separately, network sales for Franchise Services, Inc. (FSI) were up more than three percent (see tables on pages 12 and 13), and nine of 10 long-term contracts were renewed, reported Rich Lowe, president and COO. 10 Quick Printing | April 2015 MyPRINTResource.com
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