Scott Zide, CEO of Empower Brands
About a year after Lynx Franchising and Outdoor Living Brands combined, the team chose the name Empower Brands to describe “what we do for our franchisees,” CEO Scott Zide said. “We empower them to own their own business, take control of their own destiny, reach their goals in life. We do that by empowering them with the concept we have, the training we have, with the support we have.”
Lynx Franchising acquired Outdoor Living Brands in September 2021. The multi-brand home services franchisor owns seven franchises. The company announced its new name in November 2022.
The combined name change was born out of confusion among franchisees and staff. “What is Lynx Franchising? What is Outdoor Living Brands? We’re all the same company, but we kind of have this confusion,” Chief Financial Officer Michael Borreca said. “So, we came together as an executive leadership team and said, ‘We’ve got to simplify our message.’”
The culture is the most important part of any acquisition, Borreca said. “The financials have to work. You could have the best possible financial story in front of you, but if you have different mindsets or cultural fit, it’s going to be really difficult” to complete a deal and succeed going forward. “It’s something that we use as a key filter as we look for future partners to join us,” Borreca said.
Empower Brands is the newly formed umbrella company with seven home services brands in its portfolio, including Conserva Irrigation.
The process took most of last year, and Zide said his biggest takeaways were the importance of taking the time to do it right and listening to experts.
Zide got his start in franchising as a franchisee for multiple brands. He co-founded Outdoor Living Brands in 2008. Zide was the president and chief operating officer of Outdoor Living Brands before he was promoted in early 2022 to CEO of what would become Empower.
His first priority, he said, was to unify Lynx and Outdoor Living Brands. “That was really the foundation of the rebranding,” Zide said.
Empower plans to continue growing the seven existing franchise brands under its umbrella: FRSTeam, Archadeck Outdoor Living, Jan-Pro, Superior Fence and Rail, Conserva Irrigation, Outdoor Lighting Perspectives and Intelligent Office. “Bringing on talented new franchisees is a focus of ours,” Zide said, in addition to growing same-store sales and acquiring new brands.
Empower’s goals include adding more concepts, both through traditional acquisitions and by “incubating brands,” Zide said. That means “finding a category that we would believe is ripe for a franchise, and starting a brand from scratch by maybe acquiring a local company-owned operation and building the franchise around that.”