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Z-CoiL® Pain Relief Footwear® Named One of the Franchise 500® by Entrepreneur Magazine
Albuquerque, NM - January 2010 - The specialty footwear franchise Z-CoiL Pain Relief Footwear ranks #411 in the Franchise 500, Entrepreneur magazine's prestigious annual listing of the top franchises in the nation. Z-CoiL also comes in 6th in the listing's new Health Products category.
In business since 1995 and franchising since 2005, Z-CoiL has grown from a small retail store in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to a network of 220 retail locations across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, 65 of them franchises. It is this robust growth and stability, combined with low franchise startup costs and corporate support, that merits the company's solid ranking.
According to Entrepreneur magazine, "all companies, regardless of size, are judged by the same criteria: objective, quantifiable measures of a franchise operation." The most important factors include:
· financial strength and stability
· growth rate and size of the system
· number of years a company has been in business
· length of time a company has been franchising
· startup costs
· litigation
· percentage of terminations
· whether financing is provided |
Growth of a Franchise
Z-CoiL Footwear first appeared on the scene in 1995 as Z-Tech, Inc. in Albuquerque, New Mexico, launched by inventor/entrepreneur Alvaro Z. Gallegos and his son, Andrés Gallegos. By 2000, independent dealers of the shoes were springing up around the country, nearly all of them Z-CoiL customers who felt their lives had been changed by the pain-relieving benefits of the shoes, and who wanted to bring their own miraculous experience with Z-CoiL to others suffering from foot, leg, and back pain.
In 2005, the company decided to franchise its operations to help raise national awareness of the Z-CoiL brand and to improve consistency across the distributor network. Most of the existing independent dealers soon converted to franchises bearing the name Z-CoiL Pain Relief Footwear.
Two years later, to meet the growing demand for the footwear in smaller markets that could not necessarily support a franchise devoted to a single brand, Z-Tech, Inc. opened its distribution channel to include "Affiliate Vendors." These are existing comfort shoe stores or otherwise compatible retail outlets that can provide the superior customer service and custom-fitting expertise that are the hallmark of a Z-CoiL store. |
