Chris and Andy Simpson, the father and son owners of Fastsigns Leeds, are down to the final four in the Franchisee of the Year awards handed out by the British Franchise Association. They have been nominated in the Long Serving category and will find out if they have won in October.
The father, Chris, set up the business in York Road, Leeds, with his son Andy 18 years ago. Now the company is the top performing Fastsigns centre in the UK and employs 12 people.
“We are obviously delighted to be finalists in the 2013 BFA Awards. We have never looked back since setting up the business 18 years ago,” said Chris. “It is fitting that the nomination has come in our best ever year. Despite being in a recession, over the past three years we have had the confidence in our business to invest over £200,000 in new state of the art equipment and take on more people. We knew that in such a competitive marketplace standing still wasn’t an option and our strategy has clearly worked. Sales and enquiries are at a record high and our customer satisfaction level is running at 93%.
The award dinner is to be held at the ICC in Birmingham on 3 October. The overall winner chosen from five award categories will win £10,000 from sponsor HSBC Bank.