The Westpac New Zealand Franchise Awards, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Auckland on 15th November and attended by more than 230 members of FANZ and their guests, is the annual showcase for outstanding performers in franchising and suppliers to the franchising sector. New categories this year recognise excellence in community involvement and also individual performance by support staff.

Once again, this year's awards attracted a quality entry and all those who reached finalist status were commended by the Judges. The entries for the Westpac New Zealand Franchise Awards are independently evaluated and judged under the internationally recognised Baldrige criteria for business excellence and administered by the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation.

The highly contested Westpac Franchise System of the Year award went to Specsavers New Zealand Limited in what was their first ever entry to the Awards. In the judges' opinion, this was a challenging decision because the finalists were so closely matched. However, the systems that Specsavers have developed, their customer focus and their successful business partnerships gave them the edge to take out this award. This was underpinned by their excellent results, moving what is a high cost product into a volume business through their strong customer focus.

The Westpac Franchisee of the Year award was won by The Coffee Club, Bethlehem for the third successive year.  The judges commented that this was another challenging decision for them, but franchisees Ivy and William Joe have stepped up performance to yet another level. By combining a proven comprehensive franchise system with innovative ideas they continually retain and expand their customer base.  The judges were also impressed by the way they give back to the community that they operate in.