Our team at Franchising USA had a chance to sit down with Jafer Patterson, Executive Vice President of Junk King, to learn more about the growth and success of the brand. Our questions are in bold. We hope you enjoy reading!
What were you doing before you became involved with Junk King?
Earlier in my career, I was an investment-banking analyst. I learned how to analyze business systems to understand what makes them tick. Based off of that experience, I started and sold a few businesses and helped a failing business find success. After those endeavors, I served as a strategy and marketing consultant, focusing on branding and Internet marketing for my clients.
How does your background apply to your current role at Junk King?
I’ve learned many important aspects of how to run a business throughout my career. One of my favorite business sayings has always been that “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” The strategy piece for a business is to figure out what the “main thing” is. The management piece for a business is to constantly propel forward while keeping that focus. During my time at Junk King thus far, our team has grown the brand’s unit level revenues by over 300% and system-wide income by over 1,000%, all while keeping our “main thing” – providing affordable, eco-friendly services for our customers – constantly at the forefront of our minds.
How does Junk King differentiate itself from other junk removal concepts?
There are two main aspects in particular that differentiate Junk King from other concepts. Firstly, we place a strong focus on providing exceptional customer service, and secondly, all of our operations revolve around our recycling systems. We are the only national junk removal company that requires a warehouse space for recycling. Additionally, we are currently the #1 ranked service company in North America by a fairly wide margin.
Can you share more about the brand’s new dumpster service offering?
I’d be happy to! Junk King is currently launching a consumer oriented drop-off service, which we call the “MINI.” The MINI is a driveway-friendly dumtepsr box we deliver and pick up to a customer’s home within a two to four hour window. The customers load the MINI themselves. We are the only company in the industry that charges only for the space filled in the MINI. We are excited to complement our full service junk removal with this niche offering.
Who is your typical franchisee?
We have a very wide variety of former executives and business owners in our franchise system. Our typical franchisee is male, although we do have a strong representation of women franchisees in our system as well. Our franchisee is usually between the ages of 40 and 60 and has a background in business, sales, operations and general business management. Our franchise owners understand and appreciate the size of the market we go after, the recession resistant nature of the business and our record of growth and development.
Where do you see Junk King in the next five years? Ten years?
In five years, we plan to be operating in 150+ North American markets, for which we have a proven franchise system to support this growth projection. In ten years, we plan to have large recycling facilities in our major United States markets. Throughout these years, we plan to continuously serve as a revolutionary force in transforming the waste ecosystem.
Jafer Patterson is the Executive Vice President of Junk King. Founded in 2005, Junk King saves consumers time and money by eliminating unwanted clutter quickly and efficiently. The brand is best known for its commitment to recycling, repurposing and reusing materials. Junk King has become the second largest junk removal company in North America with 150 units and 70 franchisees.