Nigel Toplis
writing articles for the press but also penning three books on the subject. “Writing books is partly vanity, partly interest, partly because I think they make a difference,” he says. On top of this, Toplis has also made it his mission to help franchising achieve a higher place on the academic agenda and lectures at Lancaster University. However, he still feels there is more that can be done and doesn’t shy away from throwing down the guantlet to any university interested in having a franchise on its campus. “I’ll give you one of my franchises free,” says Toplis. “But here’s the deal: you need to be the franchisee. You as the college. And you put students in charge, let them run it as a business for a year and take out a profit share.” But academia isn’t the only area in which Toplis is committed to giving something back. Over the last 15 years he has engaged in multiple charity treks to raise money for Well Child, the charity for seriously ill children, although he notes it began more by accident than design. “Beware of agreeing to anything when you go to a party and get drunk, that’s what I say,” he quips. At a party he had thrown, John Pratt, partner at Hamilton Pratt, the franchise law firm, approached Toplis and suggested they cycle round Cuba together to raise money for the charity. Years after their successful cycle ride, Well Child approached Toplis and asked if he fancied climbing Kilimanjaro: trips across the Sahara and Sumatra followed. And in a matter of weeks he is set to cycle from Saigon to Angkor Wat for what he anticipates will be his last hurrah. “I don’t want to go on water or where it’s cold and with due respect, I’ve spent plenty of time in jungles and deserts where you’ve had
We don’t make a bunch of money by appointing a franchisee: we make much more if that franchisee is lasting and ever-growing to dig your own toilets,” Toplis says. “So that’s it: this will probably be my last challenge. No water, no cold but plenty of porcelain.” And in his defence Toplis still has his hands full with his franchise. While The Bardon Group now has 104 franchisees across its four brands and franchise sales of more than £20m, he still has some grand plans for the future. “I would like to add at least one more brand to the portfolio: I had one that I thought we had a change of getting but it didn’t materialise,” he says. Additionally, as well as continuing to help franchisees prosper and grow, Toplis is keen that eventually that those working within The Bardon Group will eventually be in a position to take over and run the business for themselves. “That would be the ideal scenario,”
he says. “Not necessarily tomorrow afternoon but some time in the future.” Asked whether he has any other personal ambitions, Toplis is uncharacteristically non-committal. “It’s very difficult to have a certain ambition and then meet that ambition,” he says. “Circumstances change.” Many of the biggest steps he has taken in his life, whether that’s building a thriving franchising empire or camping down beneath a frosty Saharan sky, have happened not because of meticulous planning but because he was able to seize upon circumstances when they were favourable. “I’m the sort of person who likes to take opportunities when they present themselves,” he concludes. “So at the moment good health would be my only ambition. The rest we can take care of when it arises.”
22 elitefranchise | OCTOBER 2017
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