Behind the Little Kickers franchise

Christine Kelly has come a long way since launching her Little Kickers business in 2002. Now in over 30 countries and teaching over 65,000 children a week, Franchise Supermarket finds out more from the entrepreneur herself.

Christine Kelly, Founder and chair Little Kickers Group

It’s not hard to see in 2019 just how popular not only the Little Kickers service is to thousands of parents, but also the business model, that has helped over 300 people become business owners, across 6 continents. But when was it obvious to Christine that the demand for her business was only ever going to increase? Christine was happy to tell us: “I think it was at the end of our first year selling franchises (2005) when we had trained 25 new franchisees, all of whom had approached LK through word-of-mouth because we had not advertised for franchisees. At that point I realised that there was a solid demand for our programme and thought it might have potential to grow into a substantial business. Our first international franchise sales was in 2006, when we sold the Master Franchise for South Africa. At that point I realised that the business also worked outside the UK and that international growth was also an option, which was very exciting.”

Little Kickers global expansion show no signs of slowing down and Christine commented on the next stage of international development: “We're now focusing on replicating the success we have had in the UK market by selling unit franchises into 4 other target countries: India, Mexico, Germany and Spain, and setting up a dedicated support team for each of these markets within Little Kickers. We'd like to become fully franchised in the UK soon, too: we still have several areas left. In terms of Master Franchises, we would like to sell the Master Rights to Japan.”

Little Kickers Franchise Opportunity


The job of a franchisor is not to just to keep expanding, but to develop the systems and ensure the continued profitability of their franchisees and that’s exactly what Little Kickers has done, as Christine explained: “We're keen to help our existing franchisees to continue growing their businesses partly through making their work easier by improving our operational infrastructure, but also by continuing to innovate both in terms of product and the way in which we deliver it and our customer experience. We're also planning to further improve Little Kickers' environmental footprint whilst at the same time enabling children who would not otherwise be able to attend organised sports classes to get involved in our programme. Watch this space!”

We left Christine by asking what advice she would give others when setting up a business: “I would emphasise the importance of developing a solid financial model so that you can be confident that you are building a business on a strong foundation. Also, I've always been surprised how many people are happy to help when you have questions so I would look for mentors and don't be afraid to ask people for advice. I have also found it very useful to view my business as something completely separate from myself, which I have a responsibility to look after, and to make any decisions on the basis of what is in the best interests of my business rather than individuals who are involved in the business. And finally, don't think small - I always ask myself "what's the worst that could happen" when I make a bold decision, and if I am ok with the worst-case scenario, I am happy to take a risk and move ahead.”

For more information on joining the Little Kickers franchise please click here.