Dorian Gonsalves pays tribute to the company’s top franchise owners at the 2015 Annual Awards.
Belvoir paid tribute to the achievements of the company’s top business owners at its 2015 Annual Awards on Friday March 20th, and also celebrated 20 years as a successful franchise.
Over a hundred franchise owners and guests attended the National Conference and Awards, which were held at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham. The prestigious black tie event was given a touch of Oscar style Hollywood glamour, complete with red carpet for award winners to walk on as they collected their trophies and champagne from popular TV presenter Dominic Littlewood.
A total of 27 awards were presented from a range of categories including Charity Champions, Highest Turnover, Group Contribution, Acquisition and Customer Service. Speaking after the event, Belvoir’s Director of Commercial and Franchising, Dorian Gonsalves said: “I honestly cannot express how proud I am of our franchise owners and the staff at Central Office in Grantham for all that they have achieved over the past 20 years.
“I would like to pay tribute to all of our award winners at this year’s event, and also to the organisers of our very successful National Conference. Each year Belvoir’s awards are extremely sought after and hard earned. We now have a network of very successful franchise owners across the whole of the UK, and so it was a massive achievement for Terry Lucking of Belvoir Peterborough and Cambridge to win Belvoir’s top Gold Award for Franchise of the Year 2015. The judging criteria for this award was Group Contribution, Customer Service, Business Growth and Future Strategy and Terry was a clear winner in all of these.
“In 2014 Terry won the British Franchise Association’s Olderpreneur of the Year Award, celebrated 15 years with Belvoir and completed an enormous amount of work on behalf of Belvoir for our sales pilot, which also earned him the Silver Award for Group Contribution. With regards to business growth, last year Terry’s business achieved 26% organic growth, which was amazing and also won him the award for Highest Annual Turnover. I would like to offer many congratulations to Terry and his team for all that they have achieved and I know they will go on to even greater success in the future.
Record breakers
“Many of our franchise owners are now breaking company records in terms of turnover, but I think it is worth remembering that the vast majority of them started with absolutely nothing and the key factors for their success has to be the courage and determination that they continually demonstrate. There have been occasions when market conditions have been difficult but our winners were never afraid to take risks. Our most successful franchise owners remain firm in the belief that if you look after the clients in your business your clients will look after you.
Top sales
“This year we included an additional award, for top Sales Performer, which went to Vaughan and Sally Schofield of Belvoir Wrexham. In November 2014 they sold a total of 20 properties in a single month and became the number one agency in Wrexham for sales as well as lettings, which was an incredible achievement. As a business it is our ambition to repeat this achievement across the entire network.
“All of our award winners in every category deserve huge congratulations. It takes tremendous energy and determination to grow a business and these franchise owners made many sacrifices along the way. The central management team really appreciates this and recognises the hard work that goes into building a business, particularly during the early days. This is exactly what Brian and Loretto Linehan of Belvoir Southampton did and why they are such deserving winners of Belvoir’s Gold Award for New Franchise of the Year.
“After such a prestigious and highly successful event it is incredible to think that Belvoir began life in Mike and Stephanie Goddard’s dining room back in 1995 when they had the gem of a great idea for a lettings company, which they combined with determination, enthusiasm and a deep seated belief in doing a good job for clients. It is inspirational to see how much Belvoir has grown in the past 20 years off the back of these simple core principles.
“Belvoir now has a very mature franchise model and it is clear that the long term benefits for our franchise owners are a healthy income, as well as an asset with significant value, which can either be resold in the future and further developed by someone else or retained by the franchise owner for many years. I sincerely hope that this will be the case for many of our loyal and skilled franchise owners and that the next 20 years will be highly successful for Belvoir.”
