William Upke, New distributor

As a new franchisee I wasn't too sure what to expect from puncturesafe, but in the early stages I've been given lucrative jobs from Head Office for me to take care of and this shows puncturesafe are committed to offering all jobs in a franchisees postcode area to their local franchisor. In fact within just a few weeks of securing my postcode area, Head Office gave me the details of a plant hire company who wanted to purchase 30 x 20 litre barrels of tyre sealant, which I acted on quickly and secured the sale, with Head Office dispatching the pallet of stock to the customer the same day.

From the very beginning the support has been there. I've made numerous phone calls when I needed assistance with the whole setting up process, and my calls have been attended to with each enquiry. I've been taken very seriously and answers have always been provided. Knowing the backing is there from the team makes me feel much more confident going forward.

With the potential of the business and the support from Puncturesafe, I'm very excited to see what the future holds.

William Upke

PunctureSafe Franchisee Success for Robert Buchanan

For the last 5 years I have been full time installing tyre sealants into vehicles in the various markets in Northern Ireland. For the first two years I tried the many different products available but I discovered nothing worked as good as PunctureSafe.

Because my business relies on repeat orders, especially from the agricultural markets and their suppliers, I now only install PunctureSafe, and because of this my business has gone from strength to strength due to repeat sales and word of mouth recommendations because of the quality and performance of the product.

During the last 3 years my sales of the 20 litre PunctureSafe drums have escalated so much that I now only purchase full pallet orders, and this I do very frequently throughout the year as my large customer base of private individuals and companies continue to grow.

Robert Buchanan

I mainly install into customer vehicles myself to get the highest profits, which has enabled me to earn a good living from my PunctureSafe business.

After my extensive experience and knowledge in this industry I can thoroughly recommend PunctureSafe UK for their professionalism and the PunctureSafe product which is the best I have ever supplied.

John Mace

My name is John Mace and I am a distributor with PunctureSafe. Prior to starting my business with PunctureSafe, I worked for over 30 years as a Police Officer, 25 of them as a detective. I was due to retire at the age of 51 and considered for several months what I was going to do. There was an option for me to continue working as a police officer past my retirement date but I was interested in doing something completely different.

I saw an advert on the internet regarding becoming a PunctureSafe distributor and it caught my interest.

The Derbyshire area was available, which meant I could work close to home so I took a trip to Exeter to meet the managing director and other members of staff. The visit to head office convinced me that PunctureSafe was an excellent product and I could see the business potential of becoming a distributor.

John Mace

Having never run my own business I set about getting as much advice as possible and undertook a training day with another distributor. This was invaluable as it gave me some direction of where to start with the business and gave me knowledge and confidence to sell the product.

My business model was mainly to sell the 20 litre drums to the trade but I ensured the capability to also do installations when required.

I have established a good customer base. There is a good proportion of repeat business every month and I continually find new customers within my area. The customers I have are diverse businesses such as golf courses, waste management companies, mobility shops, motorcycle dealers, tyre companies, house builders, caravan sales and servicing, agricultural suppliers, motorhome sales, and local councils.

The business turnover has increased month on month, year on year and I have been able to establish a good reputation for supplying an excellent product.

Simon Allison

For over 25 years my career had been in IT for the finance and pharmaceutical industries but prior to this I had experience as a REME mechanic in the Territorial Army working on HGVs. I have also developed my own track car where my interest in tyre performance developed. On top of this, I am a keen caravaner and I have also had a number of motorbikes. I therefore felt I have a broad range of experience to draw on.

However, I had no experience in sales or running a business and this was an area I would need to learn. PunctureSafe put me in touch with a couple of established distributors and I chose to have a day’s training on the job with Jeremy Smith, which was an invaluable first step for me and enabled me to start with a degree of confidence.

The business was launched and I dedicated myself to this full time. Sales were slow initially as to be expected, but with persistence they started to come, helped by identifying the niche areas where there is a clear need.

Simon Allison

I had made good progress with my initial stock and realised that it would be more effective for me to have two areas to work as I was doing this full time. I also started to join business networking groups and this is something I wish I had done sooner.

The networking has helped maintain a level of installations which I do myself and once established with the groups, has lead to referrals to companies who have since become customers and in many cases where I was not even aware of them.

I made a deliberate choice to concentrate on smaller companies initially to gain experience and credibility. As a result, I have a reasonable number of customers but many only re-order small quantities with a few having greater on-going requirements.

A recent decision to work with a business mentor has been a great help to me guiding me in business. I now realise that I need to secure a few bigger customers who will order regular large volumes to get me to where I need to be with sales. I am confident that this is achievable with some trials underway with companies of this potential.

In summary, starting a business is quite a challenge. There is however demand for the products and there does not seem to be much activity from any credible competitors. With an opportunity to speak with the right person in a business, it is often possible to put a very good business case together for PunctureSafe.

Tim Lovelace

I got on the phone to their Head Office and spoke to Adam. I found him very informative and he boosted my confidence with both the product and the company as a whole. Adam said I could ring him anytime if I have any further questions, which I did, many times!

After a visit to their offices and factory in Exeter, I decided PunctureSafe was what I wanted to do. It is very clever stuff and I couldn’t believe that it really does do everything it says on the tin! I signed up and secured my area and took delivery of my PunctureSafe product and literature. It was all down to me to do with it as I wished.

As I am still currently running my shop, I am not giving PunctureSafe much time at all, so all I am doing is promoting it so at least it’s on the move for when I lock my shop door for the last time. Without even trying, I have set up a couple of installation centres in my home town, and I have attended a couple of events as a trader from which I have got a number of contacts, and I’ve been invited to other events and open days.

Tim Lovelace

I’ve also done a lot of installations into a number of different vehicles of all shapes and sizes. Now I’m finding I have to hold back a bit because I can see this is going to explode into something bigger than I can cope with while I still have the shop. I am really excited about the future, for both myself and PunctureSafe.