COUNCILLOR CLIVE ENGLISH TOASTS FRANCHISE OWNERS AND WELCOMES NEW TOWN CENTRE INVESTMENT
Dream Doors Maidstone celebrated its showroom opening last Thursday. Franchise owners Stuart and Lisa Hewitt hosted an early champagne reception, welcoming dozens of customers and local residents through the doors. The Mayor of Maidstone Councillor Clive English, who also represents the town's High Street ward, was there to cut the ribbon and offer the couple his support.
“It's always great to see companies such as Dream Doors invest in the high street,” said Cllr English. “Successful businesses like these help regenerate the town centre. And owners like Stuart and Lisa provide much-needed employment opportunities within the community.”
Dream Doors is the UK's largest kitchen facelift retailer with showrooms as far afield as Truro and York. The Hewitts own the Maidstone franchise, and can now offer the brand's time and money-saving kitchen makeover service throughout the area.
“Lisa and I are Kent locals, and we know what this concept will bring to homes in the area,” said Stuart. “A kitchen facelift – which usually means swapping the doors and drawers, worktops and sink – will be half the cost of most new kitchens and installed in a couple of days.
“What's more, Lisa and I are also home owners, and we know what we would expect when inviting tradespeople into our home. We have high standards, and so does Dream Doors.”
Those standards are put to the test by independent consumer monitoring scheme, Check-a-trade, through which customers are invited to rate Dream Doors franchisees. One customer in Chatham, who scored the Hewitts 10 out of 10, wrote: “I'll get them back to complete more work. They're very kind and thoughtful and employed a great fitter who was very passionate.”
Whereas most Dream Doors franchisees leave salaried roles for the first time, Stuart was already an experienced business owner before joining last year. He saw an opportunity with Dream Doors to quickly build a local family business working alongside wife, Lisa.
“In many ways, this is familiar to me,” he said. “I understand sales, installations and finance. But having the backing of an established brand like Dream Doors has helped us get going far faster than we could on our own. We have the best pre-showroom turnover in the network – and that includes December – so I forecast at least half-a-million pounds of sales this year.”
Dream Doors is recruiting new franchise owners nationwide. There are also existing franchises available for sale in Stockport, the East Midlands and in East Sussex. Investment levels for these range from £50,000 to £150,000. Meet Dream Doors on stand F10 at the National Franchise Exhibition, NEC, Birmingham on 14th and 15th February (or at London's Olympia in March).