Refresh Renovations Franchise: Lead the £28.5bn Renovation Sector

Home renovation is a vast and growing sector, but it is also famously fragmented and disorganised. Around 40% of renovation projects end in some form of dispute, and the average waste on a typical project sits at around 30%. The Refresh Renovations Franchise was built to solve exactly this problem, bringing a professional, customer-focused, project-managed approach to a market that has long been dominated by small independent operators.

Founded in 2010 in New Zealand by Barry Bloomfield, Chris Caiger and Jon Bridge, Refresh has grown into the world's largest specialist renovation franchise. Today, more than 80 franchisees operate across the UK, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The brand was developed by Traffic, an established business strategy and marketing organisation, which is why marketing systems and customer experience sit at the heart of the franchise model. Refresh is the first - and still the only - national design-and-build home renovation franchise in the country.

Refresh Renovations - professional project management for home renovations

A True Management Franchise

This is a management franchise. As a franchisee, you do not need any building or trade experience because you will not be swinging a hammer yourself. Your role is to lead the business, manage your team of subcontractors, oversee customer relationships and grow the operation. The brand provides a fully integrated software platform, world-leading systems and a powerful national marketing engine to support you every step of the way.

The Proven Five-Stage Process

A Massive and Growing Market

Two Launch Packages

Earning Potential

Training and Ongoing Support

Refresh Renovations provides full initial training and ongoing support across every aspect of the business, backed by more than 20 head office staff dedicated to franchisee success. The brand's proprietary IT platform manages projects, quotes, customer communications and business reporting in one integrated system.

• ✓ Comprehensive training in the proprietary IT business management system
• ✓ Dedicated Franchise Business Manager for ongoing guidance
• ✓ National marketing support including newsletters, magazines and online advertising
• ✓ Annual Renovate handbook and regular industry publications
• ✓ Access to an established global community of franchisees
• ✓ Continuous business coaching focused on growth
• ✓ 20+ head office staff dedicated to franchisee success

Who Is the Franchise For?

Refresh Renovations is looking for business-driven individuals who want to leave the corporate world behind and build a scalable business asset. Existing franchisees have come from a wide variety of backgrounds including IT, engineering consulting and business management. What unites them is strong commercial acumen, a focus on customer service and a growth mindset. You do not need any building or trade experience - the model is designed for managers, not tradespeople.

Key Benefits at a Glance

• ✓ World's largest specialist renovation franchise - only national competitor
• ✓ £28.5 billion target market with virtually no franchised competition
• ✓ No premises, equipment or material investment required
• ✓ Average turnover ~£400,000, top performers exceeding £1m
• ✓ Royalty based on revenue received, not invoiced
• ✓ Two packages from just £20,000 - potentially under £10,000 personal capital
• ✓ Proprietary IT platform for project and business management
• ✓ No building or trade experience needed

If you are looking for a scalable, sales and marketing-led management franchise in a vast and underserved market, the Refresh Renovations Franchise could be the perfect fit.

Interested in exploring more opportunities in this sector? Take a look at other Home Improvement franchise opportunities available on Franchise Hunt.

Brand Heritage and Origins

Refresh Renovations did not start life as a construction company. It was built by Traffic, a strategy and marketing business founded in Auckland in 2001 by Barry Bloomfield, Chris Caiger and Jon Bridge. Two of the three founders are British expatriates, and Bloomfield himself studied at the Royal College of Art in London before working with international brands including Nestlé, Procter and Gamble and Unilever. That brand and design heritage is why the franchise feels closer to a professional services firm than a traditional building company.

The Refresh concept launched in New Zealand in 2010, expanded into Australia, and arrived in the United Kingdom in 2016. The model was designed from day one to be franchised, with central systems, marketing, technology and reporting built before the first unit was sold.

UK Market Context

The UK home renovation sector is being reshaped by a long-running shift from moving house to improving it. Research published by Direct Line in September 2025 found that 1.7 million UK homeowners now choose to renovate rather than relocate, with the stress of moving, conveyancing fees and stamp duty all pushing households to invest in the home they already own rather than buy a new one.

The Federation of Master Builders reported a +25% net workload increase for SME builders in the first half of 2025, with home improvement and house building leading the recovery. Yet over 60% of those builders said they were struggling to recruit skilled tradespeople, which translates into long waits, missed deadlines and disputes for homeowners.

A Day in the Life of a Refresh Franchisee

Because this is a management franchise, there is no early-morning site visit in steel toe-caps. A typical week is built around three rhythms: meeting prospective clients in their homes for initial consultations, reviewing live projects with subcontractors and architects, and working on the business itself through marketing, recruitment and forward planning.

Established franchisees typically run 15 to 30 live projects at any one time, with values ranging from compact kitchen refits to multi-room extensions and full-house refurbishments.

What Makes the Model Work

The combination of national brand, proprietary technology and a 15-year rolling agreement (structured as three five-year terms with no secondary franchise fee on renewal) gives operators a genuinely long runway to build equity in a business they can later sell.