The American franchisor of home service brands celebrated a big year in 2018, as well as cementing its presence in Europe.
In June, it announced The Riverside Company’s sale of Neighborly to new private equity partner Harvest Partners and completed two acquisitions in the US - Real Property Management and Mosquito Joe.
On top of this and in a pledge to strengthen its presence in the UK, Neighbourly UK relocated its support office to Banbury, Oxfordshire and made a significant investment in personnel and state of the art computer technology.
The company’s Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester office also expanded following the acquisitions of Countrywide Grounds Maintenance and Bright & Beautiful in 2017, adding more than 110 new franchisees to the UK network.
In addition, Neighborly established a buying group for UK franchisees called ProTradeNet and launched its ‘FranForce’ initiative, which offers military veterans and emergency services personnel a pathway to business ownership.
In Europe, Neighbourly Germany built a multi-million pound training academy with cutting edge technology and communication capabilities for its Locatec and Rainbow franchisees to use as a training and conference centre.
According to Mike Bidwell, president and CEO of Neighborly, 2018 was a period of transformation for the company.
He explains: “We changed our company name after 37 years from Dwyer Group to Neighborly, completed three major acquisition deals and put our company on a new growth trajectory.
“We are thankful for our amazing corporate team and franchisees who make it all possible. We look forward to continued growth in the years to come.”
Jeff Meyers, vice-president of international operations for Neighbourly, adds: “2019 is going to be equally momentous for us as we look to open up many more opportunities to grow our network of franchisees across our brands even further across the UK.”
Neighborly operates 21 home service brands and has nearly 3,600 franchisees in nine countries.