Every November the UK's top franchise brands gather to celebrate excellence at the BFA [1] HSBC UK British Franchise Awards, widely regarded as the Oscars of franchising. Far from being a box-ticking exercise or worse, a money making endeavour, these awards celebrate genuine business excellence, helping to attract new investors and set even higher standards for the industry.

Time = money

Our awards are free to enter, of course, but what is not free is the time brands dedicate to writing their entries, nor the hundreds of hours our judges donate to sifting, sorting and ranking each entrant. Add onto this a week of filming our finalists on location and you have a very time-heavy process, which we think befits the gravity of our awards.

And the Big winners were......Personal Services

There is a franchise for literally everything, so for ease, we group them into the following categories: Personal Services (any franchise providing a ‘direct to consumer' service), Hotel and Catering, Retail, Business and Commercial Services, Transport and Vehicle Services and Property services.

Our 2024 survey sponsored by NIC Local, revealed that the Personal Services category saw a 53% rise (since our last survey in 2018.)

That's not turnover or profit, that's physical brands of new children's tutors, baby swimming lessons, domiciliary home care businesses, pet taxis, domestic cleaners, massage providers, children's stage classes etc. Add to this that 89% of franchisees are profitable, rising to 95% after five years and you'll see that there is a huge market for these people-centric businesses.

This rise was directly reflected at the 2025 awards, with 66% of winners coming from the Personal Services category.

Domiciliary homecare and education

Breaking that down even further, of those 66% mentioned above, three domiciliary homecare businesses took home the top three awards of ‘Franchisor of the Year' - Established, Expanding and Emerging, and one primary after-school lesson provider won two top franchisor awards, proving beyond doubt that the personal services category in franchising, and in particular the domiciliary home care sector, are hugely successful and leading the way in franchise growth as we head into 2026.

Franchisor of the Year - Europe

Incidentally, British domiciliary care brand Right at Home, won ‘Franchisor of the Year' at the EFF, European Franchise Federation awards in Brussels recently; quite the feather in the domiciliary care category cap, to be the best franchisor across Europe as well as the UK.

What lies ahead for franchising in 2026?

At our recent conference we heard from two key note speakers, Piers Linney and Daniel Priestley, both of whom had one message, "AI is the future" and we can't disagree with them - to a point.

One of the advantages of franchising is that franchises are often agile enough to quickly adapt to changing circumstances; for instance, during Covid many brands took their services online within a matter of days, and came out more successful than before they went into it, so we fully expect to see more of them adapting to the new way of doing things, integrating aspects of AI into their businesses in 2026. However, franchising is and always will be, a people -first sector, and we feel nothing will replace the human touch for many of our members.

Data

There's also an increased awareness of the importance of good data for businesses, to enable franchisors and franchisees to highlight areas that need work and respond appropriately.

The final word ....

So what does it mean to have won a British Franchise Award? For David Glover, joint CEO at Caremark, winner of Franchisor of the Year (Established) Gold: "This is the pinnacle of franchising awards in the UK, and to receive this recognition is truly incredible." 

"Being named Franchisor of the Year celebrates how we've scaled the business and a shared mission to transform homecare across the UK", said Ben Ashton, co-founder of GoodOaks Homecare who won Franchisor of the Year (Expanding).

Jonathan Sabater, COO and founder of CareYourWay, winner of Franchisor of the Year (Emerging) concluded: "I am completely overwhelmed with pride. This award is not just a recognition of our work as Directors but for the thousands of caregivers who, with quiet determination, have changed lives behind closed doors, in ways no award could ever fully capture."

Bravo!

Franchisor Awards

Franchisor of the Year - Established

• Caremark (Gold)
• Premier Education (Silver)
• Speedy Freight (Bronze)

Franchisor of the Year - Expanding

• GoodOaks Homecare

Franchisor of the Year - Emerging

• CareYourWay

Leadership & Culture Award

• Premier Education

Research & Development Award

• Snap Fitness

Franchise Support Award

• Pink Spaghetti (Winner)
• Aspray (Highly Commended)

Marketing Award

• Stagecoach Performing Arts

Franchisee Awards

HSBC UK Best in Class Multi-Unit

• Roger Khoryati, McDonald's Restaurants

HSBC UK Best in Class Multi-Brand

• Angelina Mouralidarane, Iceking Group

Customer Focus Award

• Sajda Parveen, Imran Bashir & Rizwan Bashir, Snap Fitness

Dynamic Duo Award

• Neil and Melodie Watson, Tutor Doctor (Winner)
• Jinesh and Reena Patel, Revive! (Highly Commended)

BFA Star Performer Award

• Marlene Meyer, Mini First Aid

Community Impact Award

• Vicky and Paul Butler, Right at Home

Young Guns Award

• Scott and Cam Stevenson, Oltco

The BFA HSBC UK Franchisee of the Year - People's Choice Award

• Marlene Meyer, Mini First Aid