etyres fleet mobile tyres Almost bankrpted me Cambridge Nationwide

Unfortunately I took on this franchise some time ago and to my shame have only just decided to come out in the open about their franchise.  Firstly please please please do your research - but unfortunately due to the way it is structured you will have difficulty circumnavigating the online / telephone system in order to speak directly with other franchise holders.  Clever ploy No 1.  As information is power they will stop you getting what you want and steer you to their own.

Let me put your share of this business into context and round figures, then judge for yourself.  If you borrow the franchise fee of £20000 from a bank and have a pay back period of 5 years, then ignore any interest and you have to find in excess of £4000 a year or £350 a month.  Borrow money for a van and that will be over 3 years and about the same cost so that is another £7000 a year or £600 a month.  Add on another £150 a month for Motor Traders Insurance  and we have £1100 a month standing charge to find before you ever earn a penny. 

For a tyre retailing out at £100 you MAY just be able to buy it in from the wholesaler for £70 so you have a profit of £30.  Take off the franchise fee of 5% but of the sale price not the cost and another 5% admin charge and you have made £20.  Take off the cost of disposing of the old tyre, (typically £2 - supply of new valve and balance weights £2 then you have made £16.  Fuel costs will have to be deducted as you are driving from job to job and this takes some time.  However the average cost for a tyres is much less on average. 

Lets look at a popular size 185/65R14H run of the mill and custmer is on a budget so the retail cost on etyres is £41.30.  Take off the VAT @20% and they pay £31.42. You MAY be able to buy the tyre for £24.10 so your profit MAY be as good as £7.20.  Now take off the 5% fee of the sale price and 5% handling charge = £4.12 and you have in your pocket £3.08  You still have to dispose of the tyre and fit a new valve and balance so the job has just cost you £0.92.  On average and a very good day you can fit up to 24 tyres a day and that is flat out and with a full order book.  In 2 years I achieved this only 3 times.  To be fair the average cost of a tyre to the customer is higher than this but be aware this is an average and the number of £100 tyres is a lot less than budget.  Don't forget you still have to put fuel in the van and get from A to B so earnings are very limited.

The winners in all this are:-

A The customer - they get a good deal and service (look at all the feedback)

B ETYRES the company.  They get a cool £20K for every new franchise which when you fail reverts back to them and they sell again to another poor unfortunate.  They get a good profit margin on turnover and make on everything including your stationery, phone lines, uniform, van, etc etc.  In line with other comments on here I too found woirk being passed to other contractors instead of me and another franchise started in an adjoining area and head office were livid when we spoke with each other and threatened various sanctions.  He lasted 8 months because he did ity on credit, I was unlucky enough to lose my redundancy.  I know of 2 others that took on my area one called it a day after a short time and went bankrupt but had no assets and one also lost his car - house and wife.

MY ADVICE - KEEP WELL CLEAR.