High-flying franchise business Little Kickers – the company behind the UK’s most popular pre-school football training programmes, is to offer to offer new rugby training classes for under-fives. Little Kickers were recently double-nominated in the prestigious British Franchise Association Awards. They have recently announced a move into pre-school rugby training, building on their successful football courses through a global franchise network.
From humble beginnings in 2002, Little Kickers was set up as a response to the lack of suitable sports classes for pre-school children. The company’s unique “play not push” approach has led to impressive growth that has continued through the recent recession and more than 10,000+ children a week now participate in these classes.
Today, Little Kickers operates through a network of over 90 franchisees in the UK, Ireland, S. Africa, Australia and more recently Canada, and the company’s management team has now launched Little Rugby, a pre-school rugby programme for children aged from two to 5th birthday.
As finalists in the HSBC Award for Enterprise category of the BFA’s 2009 Franchisor of the Year Awards, and with North West London franchisee Julia Levene a finalist in the BFA’s 2009 Franchisee of the Year Awards, Little Kickers has recognised expertise in the area of pre-school sports franchising.
Christine Stanschus, CEO, said:
“Little Kickers’ “play not push” approach to football training has proven a hit with parents and kids alike. It’s a great way for young children to get an introduction into sports, and with many parents looking for rugby courses, launching Little Rugby was a logical step for us to take. Despite recent evidence that childhood obesity rates may be levelling off*, they are still too high, and only 1 in 10 children get the recommended hour’s exercise each day**. We feel that by offering a wider range of classes, we can encourage even more children to take an interest in sport, and contribute towards their health and wellbeing.
“Having spent more than seven years developing the strong brand and operational infrastructure which has enabled so many Little Kickers franchisees to make a real success of their businesses, the time is right to develop new products and challenges.
“Little Rugby is a great expansion opportunity for the incredibly talented existing Little Kickers franchisees, but we hope it will appeal to other committed individuals who want the freedom to run their own successful business whilst obtaining the work-life balance they want.”