Franchising: Sweetbox - Anyone Heard Of Them?

Beancounter

I am looking at a franchising opportunity with a company called Sweetbox
http://www.sweetboxltd.co.uk/

It costs £5,000 + vat, the figures quoted to be earned seem too good to be true for minimum effort. The company itself has only been on the go for 1 year according to Companies House but apart from that I can't find any other info online.

Anyone heard anything about them?

Caroline73_2

Basically you put boxes of sweets in shops, pubs, etc.

Sweetbox supply and sweets and you get a percentage from each bag sold.

What are you paying the £5750 for?

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Beancounter wrote: »

I am looking at a franchising opportunity with a company called Sweetbox
http://www.sweetboxltd.co.uk/

It costs £5,000 + vat, the figures quoted to be earned seem too good to be true for minimum effort. The company itself has only been on the go for 1 year according to Companies House but apart from that I can't find any other info online.

Anyone heard anything about them?

I would check the figures as something seems wrong.

5k to buy into a franchise aiming to make approx 150k per annum for charity.

That is an awful lot of sweets to sell when you consider overheads, I reckon the vast majority of income is new franchisees who walk away quite quickly when they realise its not a great moneymaker.

piggeh

Was thinking that as well - it states 15% of sales revenue goes to charity, which means they are aiming for £1m of sales revenue? Divided by however many franchises that covers, doesn't seem like that great on paper once you take your costs into account?

Beancounter

Caroline73 wrote: »

Basically you put boxes of sweets in shops, pubs, etc.

Sweetbox supply and sweets and you get a percentage from each bag sold.

What are you paying the £5750 for?

Primarily the stock. You get 6,000 bags (250 boxes) to get you started.

The profit is 25% so if you achieve the quoted 250 boxes placed you make £25,000 profit. The brochure states your only overhead would be transport costs.


Edit: contradiction in the brochure.....actually 16 bags per box (not 24 as the 1st page states) so you would get 4000 bags to start not 6000.

koexelek

LinasPilibaitisisbatman wrote: »

I would check the figures as something seems wrong.

5k to buy into a franchise aiming to make approx 150k per annum for charity.

That is an awful lot of sweets to sell when you consider overheads, I reckon the vast majority of income is new franchisees who walk away quite quickly when they realise its not a great moneymaker.

I tend to agree. The mark up on sweets can't be that great.
Would surely take you ages to recoup your initial investment ?

Beancounter

LinasPilibaitisisbatman wrote: »

I would check the figures as something seems wrong.

5k to buy into a franchise aiming to make approx 150k per annum for charity.

That is an awful lot of sweets to sell when you consider overheads, I reckon the vast majority of income is new franchisees who walk away quite quickly when they realise its not a great moneymaker.

The 150k is across the business not just your territory.

Using the 250 boxes and 8 bags per week per box placed example they give each francisee would generate enough sales to give £14,400 to the charity so they just need those levels of sales across 11 franchises to raise the £150k (unless I am missing something?)

Beancounter

koexelek wrote: »

I tend to agree. The mark up on sweets can't be that great.
Would surely take you ages to recoup your initial investment ?

Again, using the figures they give as an average, based on my current weekly wage I would need to make £422 a week to recoup my investment over 1 year. (current wage just £312 a week:mad: ). The profit they are quoting per bag sold is 25p.

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Beancounter wrote: »

The 150k is across the business not just your territory.

Using the 250 boxes and 8 bags per week per box placed example they give each francisee would generate enough sales to give £14,400 to the charity so they just need those levels of sales across 11 franchises to raise the £150k (unless I am missing something?)

Can they back these figures up with proper examples to show it happens? Do they have placements for the boxes or is that for you.

What about theft, damage etc - which will happen in pubs.

Sorry to damper your enthusiasm but I would be amazed if there is any sort of decent profit in it you wouldnt get in the security of paid employment.

Beancounter

LinasPilibaitisisbatman wrote: »

Can they back these figures up with proper examples to show it happens? Do they have placements for the boxes or is that for you.

What about theft, damage etc - which will happen in pubs.

Sorry to damper your enthusiasm but I would be amazed if there is any sort of decent profit in it you wouldnt get in the security of paid employment.

That is all stuff I have thought of and as far as the brochure states you just leave the box on the counter then come back in 2 weeks, replenish and collect money. No mention of who actually takes the cash and who's responsibility it is to make up shortfalls. (presumably the franchisee).

As for placements, the brochure states they give you "high quality target leads" but the onus is on you to place the boxes.

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Beancounter wrote: »

That is all stuff I have thought of and as far as the brochure states you just leave the box on the counter then come back in 2 weeks, replenish and collect money. No mention of who actually takes the cash and who's responsibility it is to make up shortfalls. (presumably the franchisee).

As for placements, the brochure states they give you "high quality target leads" but the onus is on you to place the boxes.

Ok I don't know what sort of pubs you drink in, however, none I know will have a box full of sweets on the bar for long and they certainly wont make the target price for what is used.

You will need to replenish and collect money and I would imagine very often.

Again how many pubs will want the responsibility of having the box?

You need to realise a lot of your stock will get stolen, and I dont think finding placements will be as easy as you think.

I would strongly suggest you pass on this as I refuse to believe it is worth a good living