Jon Bridge: Refresh Renovations Founder on their plans to expand to the US

A New Zealand home renovations company is aiming to challenge issues in the renovation market. 

It's worth around $9 a year in New Zealand but the American market's more than half a trillion, which is seen as an opportunity for Kiwi exporters. 

Refresh Renovations founder Jon Bridge told Mike Hosking that no one was doing renovations at scale, and there's been a major problem with budget blowouts. 

He says research indicates nearly a third of money spent on reno's is wasted and around 20% end in disputes. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Great key success story. Refreshed Renovations has grown to be
one of the largest home renaud companies in the world.
So they're generating one hundred million annually currently they're aiming
to make a billion with international expansion. They're already in
Australia currently looking to crack the UK and the US.
The founder and director John Bridges with us on this John,
very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hi Mike, how are you very well?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Indeed, thank you? So you reno at scale? Is that
how it works?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, we're a franchised home renovation company, a bit like
the new home builders are franchised like DJ Gardner and
those sorts of companies. So we have about one hundred
and seventy franchises, multiple brands refresh Renovations. We've got a
landscape and company, a maintenance company as well. We do
our renovation company. We do all types of renovations, so bathrooms, kitchen,

(00:46):
small projects up to full house renovations.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
And you simply saw in the house building market or
the housing market in general, there's a whole lot of
people at scale who do different things. No one does
renolds at scale, so off you went asolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
No one does ringos at scale, and I think we
all know there's a major problem in the renovation market
with customer service and budget blowouts. There's been researched on
which indicates about thirty percent of the money that's spent
on renovation is wasted and about twenty to thirty percent
of projects end in disputes. Now, that's a huge problem

(01:20):
given the industry right now in New zealand's about twelve
billion dollars a year, so maybe four billion being wasted.
The reason for that is because the poor project planning,
project management, and communication. Most businesses are really small renovation
businesses and they focus on the trade side of things.
Harvard University has actually done quite a bit of research

(01:42):
on it, and they've identified the renovation market as the
most fragmented sector of the entire US economy. That's about
about six hundred and fifty thousand renovation builders over there,
and about ninety percent of them have one to three
people in them. And the issue is that those businesses
just don't have the resources to invest in that layer

(02:02):
of project planning, project management, communication, that layer of things
above the trade that actually makes the projects once run smoothly.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Okay, well, I'll ask you this hold on because I've
renovated a lot in my life, and you're right, you've
got to piece this thing together. Or you can get
a project manager, and you've got to have faith in
the project manager, et cetera. Do you buy franchising run
a risk that not he buys the franchise, but not,
he's an idiot and he's going to let you down.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Well, you do, but we have really type process control.
So what we've done is invested in our own IT
systems and we've built our own development company in India.
And the key is that we've got all that process
control built into the IT system and we can see
what's going on in all of those businesses.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Okay, next question, Then do you lose by going to
a major scaled player individuality? So I come in with
all my creativity and all my ideas because this is
my dream home, my dream project, and you go, no,
We've we've got four of those, six of those and
five of those, and that's what you choose from.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
No, Because in renovations, we can't have standard plans. So
it's not like a new home dorder we have a
standard process. It's all about stage gates and checklists. And
making sure everything's done at the right stage and not
too late. If you make decisions too late in the process,
they end up costing you more. So it's about making
those decisions early on and making your cost trade off

(03:25):
decisions early on. But no, we don't have any restriction
on the type of project you can design.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Well. I wish you all the very best with your expansion,
and we'll get you back home when you've cracked a billion.
John Bridge, Refresh Renovations founder and director. For more from
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