UK FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY

Own a surface repair business in your own exclusive territory

Repair damaged worktops, kitchens, tiles, baths, doors and window frames in situ, for national housebuilders, insurers, hotels and homeowners. Four weeks of training, a protected territory, and national accounts already in place. No trade background required.

£24,950
+ VAT investment
4 weeks
Full training
350,000
Rooftops minimum

“In year one I turned over £84,000. By year three I’d taken on a third territory and a team of five.”

Stuart Todd · North & East Yorkshire · joined 2021
Download our prospectus

Full financials, territory detail and exactly what the fee covers. Sent to you immediately.

2017
Founded
18
Franchisees
23
Territories
70
Vans on the road

These are the clients your business would work for

National agreements are held centrally and fed into territories. You aren’t cold-calling for a first job.

A repair takes under two hours. A replacement takes weeks.

That gap is the entire business. Replacing a damaged worktop means coordinating trades, ripping out, remanufacturing and refitting. You repair it in place, to a brand new standard, in a single visit.

Shower tray · before and after, repaired in 2 hours

Stone sill · before and after, new build in Bolton

Burn damage · before and after, table top

Kitchen unit · colour matched and sprayed in situ

90%

Cost saving against replacement

That arithmetic is why commercial clients come back every month rather than buying once.

2hrs

A repair, start to finish

Plots get handed over, hotel rooms get relet, tenanted properties get reoccupied. Clients buy speed as much as finish.

0

Sent to landfill

Repairing in situ removes the waste and the need to manufacture a replacement. Increasingly a procurement requirement.

Sectors that buy it
9 sectors

Most van franchises live or die on one product sold to one customer type. This breadth is what keeps the business steady when a single sector slows.

What the business could earn you

Projections for years one to three, modelled on an existing franchisee reinvesting to build a team of technicians.

£81,168
Year one projected turnover
£158,103
Year two projected turnover
£242,000
Year three projected turnover

These are projections, not a guarantee. Turnover depends on your local market, drive and commitment. Produce your own business plan based on your territory and financial capability.

Three franchisees, three stages of growth

When I started, my wife and I were carers for our eldest son and living in a rented house. We've since bought a four bedroom house we're really happy with. Follow the blueprint, work hard, set yourself targets.

Stuart Todd

North & East Yorkshire · joined 2021

We reviewed the accounts, completed our due diligence and applied for a start-up loan. Training was four weeks and genuinely engaging. You leave with everything you need to produce repairs that give customers the wow factor.

John Hughes & Rob Fewings

South West · joined 2021 · partnership

The support from HQ is great. Any questions I have are answered really quickly and they've experienced what I'm experiencing now. They've got the knowledge to help you with any concerns.

Matt Turnbull

Highest performing franchisee · 4 years in

Two territories, a contracts manager and two admin staff. Matt now manages the business rather than working in it.

Speak to a Snag Doctor franchisee directly

We'll put you in touch with someone already running a territory, before you commit to anything.

Hear it first hand

Don't just rely on our word

Two minutes with Jon Lea, who started Snag Doctor with Chris Taylor in 2017 after discovering the surface repair trade while running sites for one of the UK’s largest contractors.

Read the full story in the prospectus

What it costs, and what you get

You shouldn’t need a discovery call to find out the number. If it doesn’t work for you, far better that you know now.

£24,950 + VAT

Franchise fee

A £3,000 + VAT deposit is taken on acceptance and is refundable if you decide not to proceed. The balance is due on signing, against a minimum five-year term.

Funding available

NatWest franchise funding and the government start-up loan scheme. Minimum 50% personal contribution required. We can’t guarantee any lender’s decision.

What the fee buys you

Training

Four weeks at head office: repairs, spraying, business development, safety, and field shadowing.

Kit and vehicle

Full surface repair kit, van racking, branded livery, uniform and safety equipment.

Business set-up

Company set-up help, accounting software training, full operations document suite.

Territory & marketing

Exclusive territory (350,000+ rooftops), target business report, cards, brochures, social and landing page.

You don't need to have held a tool before

Hands-on experience helps but isn’t required. Chris Taylor oversees the programme and our head technician Ricky runs the training. The one hard requirement is colour vision.

Four weeks at head office

Repairs, spraying, colour matching, safety and running the business day to day.

On-site shadowing

Time in the field with an experienced technician before your first job alone.

Ongoing workshops

Refresher sessions and new process videos as products and techniques change.

Franchisee hub

The rest of the network is on hand. Nobody works it out on their own.

Marketing support

Lead generation, sales literature and branding, plus local paid and SEO specialists.

National agreements

Head office manages the national accounts and the central enquiry line for you.

Is your area still available?

Glasgow — takenNorth East — takenCumbria — takenLancashire — takenLeeds & Bradford — takenWest Yorkshire — takenGreater Manchester — takenCheshire — takenDerbyshire — takenNottinghamshire — takenBirmingham — takenCoventry — takenWorcester — takenEastern Counties — takenCardiff — takenSouth West — takenDorset — takenHampshire — takenSussex — takenSouth London — takenScotland North — availableScotland Central — availableEdinburgh — availableScotland South — availableNorthern Ireland — availableDerby — availableLeicester — availableWolverhampton — availablePeterborough — availableNorthampton — availableStevenage — availableGloucestershire — availableOxford — availableWatford — availableLondon North — availableReading — availableBristol — availableSlough — availableLondon South — available
Available Taken

Exclusive and mapped to a minimum of 350,000 rooftops using ONS census data. No other franchisee may target customers inside yours.

Currently available

Every territory comes with a report covering population demographics and 50 businesses you can begin targeting from day one.

Is this actually for you?

We aren’t in the business of hard selling. We only want to work with people who have a genuine desire to succeed and to protect the quality of the brand.

Who does well here

  • Entrepreneurial and comfortable making your own decisions
  • Organised, prepared and reliable
  • Confident talking to site managers and clients
  • Prepared to market locally rather than wait for the phone
  • Good credit history and the capability to invest

Where we'd say no

  • You need the full investment funded
  • You have any degree of colour blindness
  • You can't commit to the full four weeks of training
  • You aren't passionate about finish quality and looking after customers

Prefer to invest rather than operate? With enough capital to put a team in place from the outset, a territory can be run as a managed investment.

From enquiry to first job

Typically three to four months. Nothing is committed until the agreement is signed, and the deposit is refundable up to that point.

1
Request the prospectus

Sent immediately. Read it in your own time, no call required first.

2
Informal call with John

Half an hour on your situation, your area and whether the model genuinely fits.

3
Financials and territory

We map your territory and share the detailed numbers while you complete due diligence.

4
Meet the team

See the operation, meet Jon and Chris, and speak to existing franchisees directly.

5
Plan, funding, agreement

Build your plan, arrange funding if you need it, pay the deposit and sign.

6
Train, then launch

Van liveried, kit issued, accreditations underway. You start trading with HQ alongside you.

Step one takes about thirty seconds.

Request the prospectus and read it in your own time. Nothing else happens until you ask for it.

Questions people actually ask

Fees, vehicles, hours and the agreement — the answers people ask for before they book a call.

A management service fee of 8% of the previous month’s invoiced turnover excluding VAT, starting in month four, with a minimum of £300 + VAT. The percentage falls to 7% above £14,000 monthly turnover and 6% above £24,000, and caps at £1,800 + VAT per territory.

A Citroën Berlingo or Dispatch or equivalent, silver or grey, and under five years old. Buying outright typically costs between £15,000 and £25,000 + VAT. Livery is included in the franchise fee.

Yes, and the financial projections assume you will for at least the first two years. You need somewhere to work free from distractions. Storage isn’t a barrier when you start, since everything you need lives in the van.

Site hours are generally 08:00 to 16:00, Monday to Friday. Expect to work beyond that in the early years for admin, quoting, ordering, networking and the occasional weekend job where a client needs it.

Five years minimum. Minimum performance levels rise from £4,000 + VAT per month across months 4 to 12, up to £24,000 + VAT per month across months 49 to 60. If targets aren’t being met there is a minimum local marketing spend of £500 per month to help you get there.

Still have a question? Call 07864 647045 or get the prospectus.

Ready to find out more?

There’s plenty more to share, including the detail behind our North West master franchise, which now turns over more than £1 million. Call 07864 647045 or download the prospectus.