bfa Membership In 1977, the major franchise companies in the UK decided to set up their own association. The British Franchise Association (bfa), was formed to act in the interests of the industry as a whole in assessing and accrediting franchising companies as those which meet its criteria for the structure of the franchise business, the terms of the contract between franchisor and franchisee, the testing of the system and its success as a franchise. Franchisors and professional advisors to the UK franchise industry wishing to be accredited must put themselves forward to the bfa to be tested against its strict and extensive criteria. Only if they successfully pass accreditation are they then able to join the bfa as a member, gain access to the benefits of membership and become represented by the British Franchise Association. Please note however that membership of the bfa, at any level, does not provide any warranty as to the likelihood of achievement of commercial success by any franchisee. As with any business venture you must thoroughly investigate every franchise proposal before committing yourself. On this site, we only feature franchisors who are either: Full Members of the bfa Full Members are established franchised businesses with a proven trading and franchising record. They are prepared to have their reputation examined by the bfa, and have an established network of franchisees. or Associate Members of the bfa Associate Members have proven their ability to launch and support at least one franchised outlet for 12 months and are now in the business of building their network. There will be few franchisees whose experience you can research and a short period of time over which the business has been tested. There are also Provisionally Listed Companies at the bfa. These are at the beginning of their development in franchising. There is a real business up and running where end products and services are being sold successfully to consumers. The franchise agreement is sound, and the company has committed itself to develop the business in accordance with bfa industry standards. These are not listed on this site at this time.