Little Kickers has been offering age-appropriate football training sessions to children for nearly two decades. In that time, the franchise has been able to create an extensive network of franchisees across 25 countries, and caught the attention of the Global Franchise Awards judging panel, who decided it was the best Children’s and Education Franchise in 2024.
It’s growth that Justin Bredeman, CEO of Soccer Shots Franchising, says has only been possible due to the care those within the business have for the brand and the children that participate in lessons.
“Ultimately, families enrol their children into Little Kickers because the coaches are caring, they’re well trained to teach basic football skills, and the kids have a blast,” he explained to Global Franchise.
Only going upwards
So far, expansion efforts have taken three forms: Little Kickers franchisees have moved countries and decided to take the brand with them; entrepreneurs have seen the brand in real-life and approached Little Kickers about a franchise agreement in an unchartered country; Little Kickers has actively identified an untapped market and sought out investors to make a business in this territory possible.
Justin has no plans to slow this growth down. “We’re extremely bullish on the future of Little Kickers,” he says. “We’ll continue to work with our franchise owners to grow in number of enrolments, growing their teams, improving the Little Kickers customer experience, and increasing operational efficiency.”
The brand also recognises that scaling further won’t be possible without initial investment, and it has pinpointed the Franchise Support Team, efficient operational technology, training programmes, and recruitment in new territories as key areas.
For more information, please visit littlekickers.co.uk.
