Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” As I look across Dwyer Group today, I know this to be true. Some 37 years since our beginning, we have progressed across the country and around the world. But it is what has transpired in just the last four years that has catapulted our organization to unprecedented levels of success.

In that timeframe our company has been working together with incredible speed as we have added service brands and launched the overarching Neighborly platform to bring those businesses together in serving our core customers. The way that Dwyer Group has grown under CEO Mike Bidwell, our leadership team, our brand presidents, and our headquarters staff has elevated our network size and end-user reach beyond belief.

And, equally important, the investment community continues to take notice.

Values Bring Value

I still remember the very first private equity partnership that Dwyer Group entered into many years ago. At the time, I strongly believed that Dwyer Group was a sound investment because, as I would say it, ‘values bring value.’ That’s how I felt about our strong Code of Values as the foundation and culture of our growing organization. Back then it was all about the possibility of future potential to come.

Fast forward to 2018, and the most recent news that Harvest Partners has acquired Dwyer Group to grow an organization with $1.7 billion in annual system-wide sales to the next level is proof of that journey. It was my entire discussion on my recent interview on the EWTN network that you can listen to HERE.

This latest transaction also marked the largest exit in the history of The Riverside Company - a private equity partner that invested in Dwyer Group on two separate occasions and to-date has invested in more than 530 transactions around the world!

“Dwyer Group is such a special company that we enjoyed two successful partnerships with them,” said Riverside Partner Meranee Phing. “It’s been deeply rewarding to work with a wonderful and talented team that shared our goals and values as we realized our vision for the company.”

How is that for an amazing endorsement? In today’s investment world, when company values resonate as much as the bottom line, life is good!

In fact, it’s those same values that attract potential Neighborly franchisees to invest with one of our service brands. And it should’t be surprising, because the investment discussions that take place in the c-suite are often the same kinds of investment discussions happening at the grassroots level with franchisees. People like to put their money into brands that have strong values at the very heart of the organization.

Then things really begin to multiply!

Consolidation: A Happy Outcome of Good Businesses Attracting One Another

In a recent Forbes column by Ed Texiera, he identified a seismic change happening in franchising: consolidation. That’s certainly what has been happening at Dwyer Group under Neighborly.

“Multi-brand companies like Driven Brands, automotive services, The Dwyer Group, residential and commercial repairs and FS Brands, window cleaning, restoration services and painting, control thousands of franchise units and serve markets and consumers with common attributes.” - Forbes.com

Meanwhile, as Dwyer Group has expanded from Rainbow International, the very first brand in 1981, to 20 service brands with more than 3,200 franchisees today, the future continues to look bright. As Mike Bidwell spoke to the media about the acquisition with Harvest Partners, he emphasized what it means for the journey ahead:

“The transaction will give The Dwyer Group the money to continue its expansion and likely will mean hiring more at its Waco corporate office.” - Mike Bidwell, Waco Tribune-Herald

Bidwell said the acquisition pace might slow a bit from the frenzied clip of the last three-and-a-half years, but Harvest Partners has the capital to fuel much bigger transactions.

“Some acquisitions have been in the 10s of millions of dollars and some have been north that. If we wanted to something in the 100s of millions of dollars range,” Harvest would be on board. “We’ve got some big ambitions here.” - Mike Bidwell, Franchise Times

If you have some of those same big ambitions as a franchise owner, we invite you to join us! Click HERE.

And you can also visit my discount page and allow our franchisees to serve you HERE.