PERTH-BASED Mpower Franchising Group, which owns the Housework Heroes and Car Care franchises, has bought Melbourne-based United Home Services, which has more than 100 franchisees on the east coast.
Under the deal, finalised after negotiations that spanned two years, the total number of Mpower franchisees will jump from 150 to 250 nationally.
The deal also makes Mpower one of Australia’s largest domestic cleaning franchises.
Mpower national franchisor Mike Stringer said the difficulty in setting up franchise operations on the east coast was the impetus for the decision to make the deal.
“Our brands, Housework Heroes and Car Care, started in WA, which makes it difficult to grow from scratch over east, especially when size is becoming more important. United Home Services has been trading for 15 years and was already well-established.”
United Home Services offers home and office cleaning, carpet cleaning, ironing and gardening services and featured in BRW magazine’s fastest growing franchise list in Australia for the past six years.
Mr Stringer called the acquisition of 100 franchisees helpful in an industry that thrives on size and needs “consolidation and economies of scale”.
“Besides organic growth through our own brand, we have actively been looking to grow assets through acquiring other growth businesses,” Mr Stringer said.
“United Home Services stood out to us because of the strong geographic synergy between our own Housework Heroes cleaning franchise presence and the States where we are yet to expand.”
United Home Services began franchising in 1998 and now operates not only in Melbourne but also in Sydney, Newcastle and Brisbane.
Housework Heroes commenced business in Perth in 2001 and has grown to become the major domestic cleaning franchise in WA.
In 2003, the business expanded into Queensland and South Australia through the appointment of two master franchisees and has since appointed franchisees in NSW and Victoria.
Currently the business has 60 franchisees.
Mpower’s third franchise is Car Care, which started in 1987 and currently comprises more than 100 franchise owners operating their own mobile car cleaning and detailing businesses.
WA Business News’ 2010 Book of Lists ranks Housework Heroes as the state’s 20th largest, with 30 franchises in WA, while Car Care is ranked 26th, with 26 franchises.
