Home maintenance franchise aiming to create 100 jobs

KILRUSH man Mark Reidy is hoping a new business franchise he has established, in conjunction with Shannon based K-Mac Facilities Management Services Ltd, will create 14 jobs in Clare over the next 18 months and 100 jobs nationwide by 2015.

 

The business idea, which won second prize and €7,000 in a recent business start-up competition at Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT), involves providing house maintenance primarily for people who may live on their own and may not have the expertise to maintain their property.

“The idea came out of our experience in commercial property maintenance. It’s really just to carry that over in a smaller scale to the maintenance of one’s home,” Mr Reidy explained.

K-Mac Facilities Management Services Ltd, established by Kevin McDonagh, operates a similar model in the commercial field.

“We’re coming at it from the point of view of maintaining your house on an ongoing basis. We would visit the home four times per annum and each visit would entail a different element of service. Everything that we service and sign off on would be guaranteed for 12 months thereafter. It’s like buying a warranty for your home. For every euro invested, it saves €5 in re-active maintenance. Preventive maintenance is more cost-effective over a three to five-year period and certainly over the lifetime of any home,” he pointed out.

“All of our market research is based on home owners aged 65 years plus. Even in that model, using the LIT facilities and the business mentors, we were able to prove it’s a viable business and we haven’t gone into any of the other markets yet. People living on their own want to continue living on their own but there are certain elements of preventive maintenance in their home they can’t do. This is just a helping hand if you like,” Mr Reidy suggested.

The Kilrush businessman said people who have been forced to emigrate may be interested in seeking the service for elderly relatives living on their own in Ireland.

“Sometimes our customer and the end user could be two different people. For instance, I might sign up for it for my mother, who lives alone. It’s peace of mind for family and friends who may not be living in Ireland anymore,” he said.

Long term, Mr Reidy and Mr McDonagh are planning to expand the business to the UK and to sell franchises.

“I’m in London showing the idea to an English company. Clare is our base because that’s where we have done all of our market research. The course I did in LIT was in the franchise programme and we’d hope to licence out this service once we get it operational.

“We’ll run the Irish business from our headquarters in Shannon. Then independent operators would sign up and get territorial rights in other areas around the country. At the moment it’s the Clare and Munster area we’re concentrating on because that’s where the greatest concentration of our current workforce is,” Mr Reidy explained.

Judging for the award won by Mr Reidy was carried out by the heads of LIT Business School, the National Franchise Centre, along with industry and banking experts.

The award and €7,000 in prize money was presented by Minister of State Jan O’Sullivan at the National Franchise Centre (NFC) at the FAST (Franchise Acceleration Start-up Training) 2012 Business Awards.