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Kitset Assembly Services is an established international assembly-services company now expanding its franchise system throughout the United States.
The company provides professional assembly services for ready-to-assemble products including furniture, sheds, BBQs, trampolines, wardrobes, fitness equipment, outdoor products, cabinetry and other products purchased by consumers and businesses.
Kitset has built its business around a combination of direct consumer bookings, local marketing and relationships with major retailers that sell products requiring assembly.
For the U.S. market, Kitset offers both individual franchise territories and larger Master Franchise opportunities.
The opportunity featured here focuses specifically on the Master Franchise.
Rather than purchasing one territory and personally operating an assembly business, a Master Franchisee acquires the exclusive development rights to a much larger geographic market. The Master Franchisee’s primary responsibility is to develop the Kitset brand throughout that region by recruiting, onboarding, training and supporting individual Kitset franchise owners.
This creates a very different business opportunity.
The Master Franchisee is essentially responsible for building a regional franchise organization rather than simply operating one local assembly business.
Kitset Assembly Services was developed to solve a simple but increasingly common problem.
Consumers purchase enormous numbers of products that arrive ready to assemble, but many consumers either don't have the time, tools, experience or desire to assemble them.
Kitset created a professional assembly service designed to handle those projects.
Services can include assembly of:
Furniture
Wardrobes
Cabinets
Sheds
BBQs
Trampolines
Fitness equipment
Outdoor products
Storage products
Office furniture
Other ready-to-assemble products
Over time, Kitset expanded beyond individual consumer jobs by developing relationships with retailers that sell products requiring assembly.
Those retailer relationships can generate centrally supplied work that is distributed through the franchise network.
Kitset reports more than 250,000 products assembled and more than 100,000 customers across its broader system.
After developing the model in Australia and New Zealand, Kitset began expanding into the United States.
Its U.S. strategy includes both individual franchise territories and larger Master Franchise development opportunities.
The Kitset Master Franchise is best suited for someone who looks at a large geographic market and sees the opportunity to build a franchise organization across it.
This is very different from purchasing a normal franchise.
An individual Kitset franchisee primarily operates an assembly-services business.
The Master Franchisee primarily develops people, territories and franchise businesses.
The Master needs to identify prospective franchise owners, explain the Kitset opportunity, help qualified candidates understand the business, onboard new franchisees, coordinate training, support those franchisees and continue developing the regional network.
That makes sales and leadership ability extremely important.
A successful Master Franchisee should also understand that selling a franchise is only the beginning.
The long-term value of the Master territory depends upon building successful franchisees who remain in business and continue paying royalties.
For that reason, the strongest candidate isn't necessarily the person who can sell 50 franchises fastest.
It may be the person who can recruit 50 good franchisees and help them build sustainable businesses.
Kitset provides operating systems, brand assets, training programs and support infrastructure for the franchise network.
The company's individual franchise training includes business operations, job-management systems, local-area marketing, health and safety, administration and hands-on assembly training.
At the Master Franchise level, responsibilities expand significantly.
Master Franchisees are expected to participate in:
Franchisee recruitment
Franchisee selection
Initial training
Onboarding
Ongoing coaching
Quality standards
Customer-service standards
Business growth
Compliance
Regional business development
Territory development
Kitset's Master Franchise materials specifically identify four core areas of ongoing coaching:
Quality — Service — Growth — Compliance
The Master also receives access to Kitset's brand assets and operating systems.
Master Franchise financing will depend heavily upon the financial qualifications of the candidate and the structure of the specific territory.
Potential funding sources may include:
Personal capital
Conventional business financing
SBA financing, when eligible
Retirement-plan business funding (ROBS)
Home-equity financing
Securities-backed financing
Business partnerships
Investor capital
Third-party franchise financing
Because the Master Franchise requires approximately $329,000 plus development and working capital, candidates should carefully evaluate how much debt the business can reasonably support during the early development period.
The recurring royalty base will not exist on Day One.
It must be built by successfully recruiting and developing unit franchisees.
All investment figures are estimates based on publicly available information.
All financial information presented here is for general educational purposes only and should not be interpreted as a guarantee of franchise sales, revenue, profitability, owner income or investment performance. Illustrations showing the potential number of territories, franchise-fee participation or monthly royalty participation are simply mathematical examples based upon the current fee structure. They do not mean that a Master Franchisee will successfully sell every available territory. Actual results can depend upon: Franchise recruitment Local demand Population Territory quality Franchisee success Franchisee retention Marketing Development expenses Sales expenses Staffing Support expenses Economic conditions Competition Retail relationships Development requirements Kitset is also relatively new to the United States. Prospective Master Franchisees should carefully review all current disclosure documents and the Master Franchise agreement and consult qualified franchise attorneys, accountants and financial advisors before investing.
An independent assessment from your franchise consultant
Steve Warres, Franchise ConsultantKitset Assembly Services caught my attention for a reason that is somewhat different from most of the franchises I evaluate.
I'm not particularly interested in presenting Kitset simply as another individual home-service franchise.
What interests me is the Master Franchise opportunity.
A Master Franchisee has the opportunity to acquire the rights to develop Kitset across a substantial geographic region and then build a network of individual franchise owners within that market.
That changes the entire investment thesis.
Instead of asking:
“Can I build a successful assembly business in one territory?”
I'm asking:
“Can I build a successful regional franchise organization?”
For the right candidate, that is a much more interesting question.
I particularly like this opportunity for someone with significant experience in sales leadership, business development, recruiting, operations or building teams.
However, Kitset is new to the United States.
That adds risk.
A candidate considering a Master Franchise should be comfortable entering an emerging U.S. system and should carefully validate both the underlying unit economics and the franchisor's ability to support rapid U.S. development.
Bottom line: Kitset Assembly Services is an opportunity I would categorize as Emerging U.S. Master Franchise / Higher Development Potential / Higher Execution Risk.
The reason I'm interested in Kitset isn't primarily the individual assembly business.
It's the opportunity to build the franchise network itself.
For approximately $329,000, a qualified Master Franchisee can acquire development rights to a substantial geographic market.
In a market containing approximately 5 million people, that could represent roughly 50 individual franchise territories based upon Kitset's approximate 100,000-person territory model.
The financial structure is particularly interesting.
Under the Master Franchise structure presented to us, the Master receives approximately:
$39,600 — 80% of each $49,500 individual franchise fee
and
$800 — 80% of each $1,000 monthly royalty paid by an operating franchisee.
This creates two different economic components.
The initial franchise-fee participation can provide revenue while the territory is being developed.
The ongoing royalty participation can potentially create a recurring revenue base as the network matures.
For example, 25 operating franchise territories would mathematically represent $20,000 per month in the Master's share of the fixed royalties. Fifty operating territories would represent $40,000 per month.
Separately, selling 10 individual franchises would mathematically represent $396,000 in the Master's share of initial franchise fees, while 25 franchise sales would represent $990,000 and 50 would represent $1,980,000 cumulatively.
Those figures are not projections of what a Master Franchisee will earn. They simply illustrate the current fee-sharing structure. Actual results depend upon successfully selling territories, keeping franchisees operating and covering all Master Franchise expenses.
That's also where the risk lies.
Buying the rights to 50 potential territories is relatively straightforward.
Finding 50 qualified franchisees, helping them become successful and building a respected regional franchise network is considerably harder.
Fill out the form and we will reach out to answer your questions, walk through the investment details and help you decide whether this is the right fit.
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