Yorkshireman Simon Stack started his Snap-on franchise 21 years ago when he was made redundant from his job as a mechanic. For many years Simon has been one of the UK’s most successful Snap-on Franchisees and now runs a multi-van operation based near York.

Simon’s franchise has been recognised by the British Franchise Association as one of Britain’s best, and recently told a panel of experts, chaired by Sir Bernard Ingham, former Press Secretary to Margaret Thatcher and President of the British Franchise Association, how he has consistently beaten the competition to become one of the UK’s top franchised businesses.

Simon’s visit to award sponsor HSBC Bank’s HQ in London’s Canary Wharf couldn’t have been further from his beginnings on a government training scheme in the eighties. Lucky for Snap-on we found Simon - and Simon was at pains to point out to the panel just what Snap-on has enabled him to achieve in life.

When asked how he built such a successful business with no prior experience in sales or business management, Simon said “Work the Snap-on programmes and you stand a great chance of success. If you don’t - you won’t!”

After being grilled by the panel, Simon breathed a huge sigh of relief, attended a photocall and returned to running his business in his native Yorkshire. He now has to wait until the National Franchise Exhibition in October when the winners will be announced.

Stewart Maze has been a Snap-on Franchisee in South Antrim, Northern Ireland for almost ten years. Originally from a farming background, Stewart had always wanted to be a salesman, and when the opportunity arose to become a Snap-on Franchisee, he jumped at the chance. “I never occurred to me that I’d have my own business one day, but I was talking to the local Snap-on Franchisee who told me he thought I’d be really good at it, and it all went from there.”

“It was a bit scary starting my own business; and although the training and support was great, no matter how much they warn you nothing prepares you for the amount of work involved in the first year”.

So why choose franchising? “I wanted the reassurance of doing something tried and tested. The easiest way to be successful is to copy people who are successful already. Snap-on have been at this a long time and the smart Franchisee just works the programmes - all of them. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel or try to do things too differently.”

Stewart recently added a second van to his franchise and is already seeing the benefits: “Now my competitors are not capable of giving the same level of service - or they feel it’s not worth trying.”

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Tim Adkin joined Snap-on five years ago as our first ‘Trainee Franchisee’. The Trainee Programme is designed to allow qualified applicants to develop a territory as a Snap-on Employee, and then become a Franchised Franchisee.

This allows the candidate to ‘test drive’ the Snap-on proposition, and allows Snap-on to develop a new territory. The area of East Yorkshire that Tim took had little industry; most of the businesses there were concerned with agriculture or tourism.

Tim knew the area well as he and his wife used to run a market stall together in most of the towns in the East Riding of Yorkshire: Malton, Beverley Hull and Scarborough, and Tim was convinced he could develop a successful Snap-on Franchise there.

Tim was chosen from over 60 applicants, and it was obvious from day one that Tim had the makings of a top Snap-on Franchisee. In his first year he had developed the business to such an extent that he formed a Limited Company and took on the Snap-on Franchise.

He also won the title ‘Rookie of the Year’ and his franchise has gone from strength to strength. Tim’s positive mental attitude and motto “Customer Service First and Foremost” has helped build him a thriving business - along with a lot of hard work!

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