Ten years after setting up The Rock Project contemporary music school as a one-off evening in a local theatre, the UK-based franchise has almost doubled in just 12 months.
Led by husband and wife team Stuart and Lowri Wynne, The Rock Project has opened more schools in the past year than any one to date. It also opened its first master franchise in Ireland.
“The tenth year is turning out to be the busiest and the best,” MD Stuart Wynne said. “We have had nine new franchises come on board this year, taking our total to 20, along with one master franchise in Ireland.
“It’s an exciting period of growth for The Rock Project, we have 39 schools and that’s in no small part thanks to the enthusiasm of the franchisees joining our team.”
Starting with 32 pupils in 2005, The Rock Project became a franchise in 2008 and has now seen around 4,000 students take part in sessions.
With a team of regional managers covering the South East, South West, Ireland, North East and Scotland, MD Stuart is still very much hands on.
He spends much of his time on motorways, zipping between The Rock Project schools and feels it is important to remain on hand to give his franchisees advice and encouragement.
“With any venture it’s important to stay positive,” he said. “For many franchisees this is their first business and part of our job is to not only give them the system to achieve, but guide and encourage them along the way.”
The latest schools to open will be based in Galway and Surrey, following hot on the heels of franchises in Belfast, Reading and Greater London, which opened this September.
This rapid expansion is buoyed by sound business sense: A franchisee working four sessions a week, school term time only, could expect a turnover of £100,000 a year, of which 40 per cent could be profit.
As they celebrate 10 years in business, the Wynnes are far from ready to rest on their laurels.
“Our target is to have 50 franchises within the next five years and the regional managers are now actively looking for people to bring on board,” Stuart added. “This is just the beginning for The Rock Project.”
