In 2026 AI may be the word on everyone’s lips and brands are naturally using it to impress potential customers, but I think we can all agree that much of what we read these days is taken with a healthy dose of ‘AI scepticism’, leaving us with an unfulfilled desire to know if companies are really as good as Claude, or his mate ChatGPT, say they are?
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But what if there was something that could genuinely make franchise brands stand out from the crowd? A 100% traceable, accountable system that could sort the wheat from the chaff, demonstrate to the world that you really are amongst the best franchises in your sector and leave your competition standing in the year ahead? That would be something, right?
The British Franchise Awards
Welcome to the BFA HSBC UK British Franchise Awards. The one place in the franchising arena where the facts can’t be moulded or manipulated – the winners are quite simply what they say they are – the best of the best in franchising.
2026 Awards
As I write in April 2026, we are on the cusp of opening the awards for this year and I wanted to take this opportunity to explain how the awards work, to encourage you to enter for your first, or fifteenth time, and to help you give your brand the enormous competitive advantage it deserves.
How the awards work
Entries are submitted via the BFA website and Gillian Morris, Head of Franchise at HSBC UK and I spend a week doing the first sift.
The Sift
In the first sift we are making sure brands have answered the questions, kept to the word limit and stuck to the criteria. It is at this stage that we are looking for the stand out entries, the stories that capture the headlines and showcase progress in the last 12 months. Sadly, many entries fail at this point so to be in with a strong chance of succeeding we absolutely recommend in depth planning before you start drafting. Make sure you do the basics and put your best foot forward.
2nd judging stage
Following the sift, our finalists are invited to a formal judging interview which is with myself, Gillian and three experienced BFA members selected from our Advisor base. The external judges review the entries, and we make our final decisions based on the written submissions, the presentations and the online Q&A session.
We publish the names of the finalists in the summer and the winners at the awards ceremony in November.
Preparing your entry
If I could pass on one piece of advice to you it would be start your entry sooner rather than later. We are very well aware of how much time it can take to draft the perfect entry, so give yourself weeks to complete it, not days! Many winners tell us that writing the entry gave the entire team a chance to reflect on all that they achieved in the past 12 months and now see it as an integral part of their business year. So, why not enjoy the process and maybe have a small internal celebration when your entry is complete?
Is it worth all the work?
Year after year brands tell us about the enormous benefits of winning a British Franchise award. And Jonathan Sabater, managing director and co-founder of domiciliary homecare franchise CareYourWay, who won Franchisor of the Year – Emerging’ at the 2025 awards, is no different: “We always knew the publicity and recognition would be huge; winning completely took our breath away.”
Winning not only changed the way they presented themselves to prospective franchisees, he said, but also gave their head office team a boost, because the win reinforced that they were indeed achieving their goal, to be “the one of the best in franchising.”
Recruitment boost
The win had an impact on their recruitment too: “A large number of new prospects have been directly attracted after winning the BFA Emerging Franchisor of the Year award and some of them have explicitly said they feel like they’re joining a winning team and a brand that’s already one of the best.”
Being one of the best
Jonathan is clear about how to be a winner: “If you’re not striving for real obsessive perfection across every part of your business and your life, with a genuine burning drive to be one of the best, then you’ll find it very hard to compete in a world that’s already saturated with hungry, innovative people, who all want to win.”
Who dares wins
Potentially controversially he adds: “If you don’t even back yourself to enter and win the top awards in your industry, then it’s probably time to take a hard look at where you really are. Strong words, maybe, but the reality is that if you don’t even want to try and win, you’ll always be a loser.”
Entries to the 2026 BFA HSBC UK British Franchise Awards will be open soon here.
