Michael Bennett
Rent-to-own furniture company Buddy’s Home Furnishings has ambitious expansion goals. Purchased by Franchise Group in 2019, the company altered its growth strategy in response to that ownership change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The benefit to us in the partnership we have with FRG was that they were interested in growing the franchise and investing in the franchise,” said Buddy’s CEO Michael Bennett. “First thing we did was we sat down and put a plan together of what we wanted to accomplish.”
That plan included growing to 1,000 stores by the end of 2031. Buddy’s has about 335 units today, so a big lift is ahead.
One of the ways Buddy’s aims to get to that lofty goal is via its existing franchisees. While it does sell to new franchisees, any current or incoming owners are encouraged to open multiple locations. “The vast majority of our franchisees are multi-unit owners,” said Bennett.
Roughly 90 percent of franchisees in the system own more than one Buddy’s location. Several franchisees have even gone into high double digits in the last seven years, going from three locations to more than 80 in some cases.
“The strength of Buddy’s is its people, period,” said Bennett. “The people and support team have decades of experience at the top tier and even more as you go down in the organization.”
Supporting the franchisees is also part of making it to that big unit goal. One way Buddy’s does this is through its corporate stores. With 36 corporate locations, it can test changes or updates at those stores before rolling them out to franchisees. And anything that isn’t proven out at company units doesn’t advance to franchise stores.
“I’m not going to ask franchisees to put money forward into some concept that we haven’t already tested,” said Bennett.
“When people ask me, ‘Hey, Michael, why should I do Buddy’s?’ my answer is talk to our franchisees,” he continued. “Don’t believe anything I say—believe the ones that put their money into this and their skin in the game.”