A new franchise concept unseen in the American market has made its way from Australia to Little Elm.
Jumping J-Jays plans to grow its current franchise network from 60 locations to 300 in three years from its new United States headquarters on King Road, according to a release from the company. The center opened eight weeks ago and will field all calls from franchises across the country.
Jumping J-Jays chose North Texas for its American corporate head office because the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area ranks the highest for growth of families and of the housing market, according to the release. Owner and Managing Director John Newton also has moved from Australia and has spearheaded the set up in North Texas and has started the campaign for rentals and franchise sales.
Newton chose the Little Elm-Frisco area over McKinney, Garland, Las Vegas, and several California cities specifically because it was one of the fastest growing areas in the country.
“[This area] came up in the top five fastest growing cities on all the research that we did,” Newton said.
Jumping J-Jays has been the industry leader in the franchising sector in Australia and New Zealand for the past three years as its system grew from nine franchises in 2003 to nearly 60 today. A string of awards has driven the party industry rental company to the top from Franchisor of the Year (Home based and mobile) to being named in the Business Review Weekly annual FAST 100 companies two years running. More recently, the Financial Review Magazine (January 2007) rated Jumping J-Jays as one of the “Super 7” Franchise systems “that will change your life.” The company’s products are promoted worldwide as Party Castles, but are also known as Moonwalks, Bounce Houses, Bouncy Castles, and also Jumping Castles.
Newton is the founder of the company that originated in Sydney in 1997 and began franchising in 2000. Newton has taken up the reins in Jumping J-Jays’ new headquarters to increase the company’s presence worldwide.
Newton said he believes that by personally relocating and taking the U.S. market under his wing it will bring both continued growth and further his goal to increase inflatable amusement safety throughout this industry.
Newton claims that his rental equipment is the safest by using a different design as opposed to the traditional American market design.
“Our party castle inflatable rental company is about servicing the needs of the under 12-year-old parties only,” he said. “We are focused on designing and building the equipment to be the safest in the market and the world.”
Franchisees are provided with a comprehensive local area marketing program (LAMP) which outlines how the franchisee can promote their business successfully in their local community. The business also has all the inbound calls answered by the call center, and all the national marketing is coordinated centrally.
Newton claims that his franchise business owners need no rent, no working capital to operate and they have no out of date stock, no perishables and best of all there is no need to give away their day jobs. Ninety-five percent of all Jumping J-Jays franchisees in Australia work a regular weekday job but are able to supplement their income on the weekends.