Gill Helps Tatty Bumpkin To Sign First Franchisees

Tatty Bumpkin, the award-winning natural lifestyle brand for children aged one to seven years, has signed up its first franchisees.

Gill Levett, a franchising specialist with EMC Management Consultants at Maidstone, says Tatty Bumpkin is on course to achieve its goal of establishing a network of nine franchisees by the end of this year.

Gill, who was called in to work with the Sevenoaks-based company on its expansion into franchising, said: “The interest has been tremendous. Four people have already signed up and several others are in the pipeline.”

Tatty Bumpkin, which was formed in 2004, benefits from the exposure it receives via tour operators such as Sunsail, Canvas Holidays and the TUI group, including Thomson and First Choice, who build its yoga-inspired, multi-sensory movement classes into their children’s entertainment programmes. The holiday sessions provide perfect tasters to encourage parents to sign up for classes when they return home.

The franchise programme offers people the opportunity to market and run Tatty Bumpkin classes within a specified territory, and to sell the associated ranges of funky organic clothing, fair trade toys and ethically-sourced accessories.

Gill said: “I have helped the company to refine its systems for attracting and developing the right profile of franchisee. It’s very targeted and, therefore, less likely to lead to disappointment either for the company or the potential franchisee.”

Tatty Bumpkin plans to build a network of 50 franchises by 2011 and launch internationally at the end of 2010.

To find out more about the company and its products, visit www.tattybumpkin.com.