One Stop shop front

One Stop continues to attract independents to the franchise scheme it began piloting last year, and has announced its 50th franchisee.

The store in Boothstown, Manchester is currently trading as a Spar, but owner Tahir Mahmood is to re-open it as a One Stop in early 2015. The 1,400 sq ft store serves a large residential area and will expand its selling space to 2,200 sq ft as part of the refit. Mahmood has operated the store, as a Spar, for 12 years.

The One Stop franchise scheme now has 26 retailers from former symbol groups and 24 previously unaffiliated independents. Its franchise heartland is in Northern and Central England, where it has a total of 38 stores. It has seven stores in Southern England and five in Wales.

“It’s clear that our franchise concept appeals to retailers across the board, as we have a fairly even split between previously unaffiliated independents and symbol retailers - and indeed within the latter we’ve signed up stores from every group,” said One Stop franchise director Andrew King.

“We now have everything in place to really grow the franchise estate. We’ve built a great model that is creating tangible results for franchisees, we’ve assembled an experienced team who will help retailers to maximise their potential and we have a very strong pipeline of retailers.”

One Stop officially launched the scheme in January having run five pilot stores last year.

Mahmood said he had considered a number of different options before opting to join One Stop. “Their retail knowledge was probably the clinching factor. They operate their own stores successfully and they really know what they’re talking about,” he explained.

“It was also about how they intend to invest in my business and to work with me to grow my sales and margins.”