Managing director Terry Barcham was presented with the winner’s trophy at a glittering Awards luncheon held at London’s Savoy Hotel last Thursday (May 24).

The theme for the Awards, sponsored by Express Newspapers and HSBC Bank, was ‘Customer Focus’, an area that the Kettering-based manufacturer and distributor of automotive diagnostic equipment has invested in heavily.

As new cars have become more complex Snap-on has responded with products and services that allow its franchisees to keep pace with the changes, primarily in diagnostics. But they also recognised the need to offer training courses, not just for franchisees but for customers as well, and invested £1 million to train them in the use of complex automotive diagnostic equipment.

Customer contact has always been a fundamental element of the Snap-on business plan, with franchisees making regular weekly visits. This system is now being utilised to implement a hard-hitting direct marketing campaign, with flyers featuring new products, monthly deals, services and industry news being supplied to franchisees who distribute them personally, establishing a strong link between the customer, the franchisee and the franchisor.

It’s a link that helped produce a record year in 2006 and promises to secure a profitable future for the whole network.

For the first time this year, the bfa Franchisor of the Year Awards also announced winners in the Silver and Bronze categories.

Scooping the Silver Award was Domino’s, the pizza market leaders who know that when it comes to pizzas, speed counts.

The company has been doing everything possible to help their franchisees meet customers’ demands for the fastest possible deliveries, including the introduction of superwide broadband connections which have significantly reduced ordering times; fast bake ovens that have cut the cooking times, and the re defining of delivery areas to allow franchisees to open more stores and get more pizzas to more customers more quickly than ever.

The Bronze Award went to Molly Maid, the home cleaning agency that has introduced a number of customer-focused initiatives designed to further secure its position as the UK’s leading home cleaning service.

These included customer focus groups and estimate studies to help define ways of attracting and retaining long-term customers. At the same time, Molly Maid redesigned its training programmes, offering more up to date and practical customer service advice for new franchise owners, supported by an intensive marketing campaign based on their consumer research.

Speaking at the presentations, bfa Director General Brian Smart said: “The three top candidates presented extremely powerful cases, but we felt that Snap-on Tools met the criteria of the judging panel just a little more effectively than the others.

“We were particularly impressed with their ability to identify and respond to the need to educate both customers and franchisees in the complexities of their product.”