Category: Franchising
From fast food to the classroom: McDonald’s director launches tutoring business
Lorelei Reddin | 16 February 2022 | 1-min read | Yahoo News
A SOUTHAMPTON businessman has swapped his corporate career at McDonald’s for the classroom.
Adie Twining’s new venture is the in-home and online tutoring company Tutor Doctor.
Reshaping his career during the pandemic, he has already helped a number of students in and around Southampton and Salisbury.
After almost three decades of working for McDonald’s, Adie wanted to do something that improved the life chances of young people and enabled him to retain his involvement and active fundraising with local charities Simon Says and Ronald McDonald House, both of which are close to his heart.
He told the Daily Echo: “I’ve already been able to help so many local families and children. Schools are doing a great job, but with the learning loss from the pandemic, they are under pressure, and we can help support students, families and schools with this catch-up. As a local resident, that means a lot to me.”
After graduating with a Business Studies degree from Southampton University, Adie started working for the fast-food giant and worked his way up the corporate ladder to become Director of Franchising. It was not until the pandemic hit, coupled with his family commitments, that he left his successful corporate life of 28 years to run his own business.
Adie and his wife Tracy have seen first hand the difference private tutoring has made to their three children, building on school learning.
“We have worked hard to attract an outstanding group of local tutors,” added Adie. “They share our vision and are fully committed to delivering an outstanding learning experience for the young people whose parents entrust us with their education.”
Code Wiz joins the CSG Family of Brands
A mentor introduced Ruth Agbaji, the founder of the fledgling franchise Code Wiz, to Tutor Doctor’s President Frank Milner last year, when COVID-19 shutdowns were sending parents and kids scrambling for safe and enriching activities.
The two struck up a partnership, in which Code Wiz sent students to Tutor Doctor and vice versa. “It was one of those things where all the stars just sort of aligned,” Agbaji recalls. “It was like, this makes a lot of sense. You should look into an acquisition.”
In March, Tutor Doctor and Clear Summit Group bought Code Wiz, and Agbaji and Milner are now strategizing on an expansion plan for the six-unit computer-coding franchise.
Milner is “super, super excited, in case you couldn’t tell,” about the 20-year-old brand’s first acquisition. Tutor Doctor has 350 franchisees who operate around 700 franchise territories in 15 countries, he says. Code Wiz has only six.
“I think back to the early days of Tutor Doctor when we were just getting started. So for me to have an opportunity to get back to the early stages, high-growth opportunity, it’s incredible exciting,” he said from his headquarters in Toronto. “I’m chomping at the bit.”
Agbaji launched Code Wiz in 2017. “It tied my love for coding and my desire for impact,” she said. “We help kids ages 7 to 17 unlock their inner geniuses through coding and robotics.”
Range of investment for a Code Wiz franchise is $60,000 to $80,000, about the same as Tutor Doctor. “Definitely the plan is to grow Code Wiz as a separate and distinct stand-alone brand, and we see huge market opportunity for that,” Milner said, adding details of their growth plan will be hashed out in ongoing strategic planning meetings.
