NZ’s Youngest Franchisor to Expand

NZ’s Youngest Franchisor to Expand

20-year-old Jorgen Ellis has gone from building sheds to building his multi-million dollar business, and he’s about to expand even further in New Zealand and overseas.

Ellis founded Kitset Assembly Services in April 2014 at just 18 years old as he was studying accounting and management at Canterbury University.

But it was in his part time position at a home improvement store that the spark for his business came.

“Customers were constantly asking me whether they could buy kitset or flat-pack products pre-assembled, or have someone come to their house to assemble them,” he says.

“The answer was always ‘no, sorry’ and I realised the store was losing sales because of it. So I decided to launch a business doing what people were demanding. We assemble people’s furniture and kitset purchases so they don’t have to.”

Ellis invested $310 of his own money to start the business ($300 for tools, $10 for business cards) and has since sold the Christchurch franchise to one of his best friends earlier this year for $50,000. He’s set up two more in Auckland, one of which he’s also sold on.

The Franchise Association of New Zealand believes he is the country’s - and possibly Australasia’s - youngest franchisor.

He’s now on the hunt for franchisees to help reach the goal of having more than 1,000 franchisees here and around the world in the next decade.

His Albany-based business is currently building a 400m² head office and training facility set to open on the 1st of August.

With revenue expected to reach almost $2m in the next financial year, Ellis says the company can’t keep up with the demand for its services.

“The flat-pack industry is worth $24b every single year in the UK alone, so there’s enormous growth potential for us globally.”

He puts his business success down to two things: extremely hard work, and a service that solves genuine problems.

“Increasingly, young people are time-poor and don’t want to be spending their weekends testing their patience - or in many cases, their relationships - by assembling furniture. Most of them don’t even own the tools to do it.”

“On the other end of the spectrum, many elderly people would rather not put their bodies through the strain the assemblies require.”

“Our service is great for increasing the sales at stores offering kitset and flat-pack products. That’s good news for them, because they prefer selling flat-packed items which are more profitable than bulky fully-assembled products.”

ENDS

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