What the EF100 actually is: The Elite Franchise Top 100 is now in its ninth year. It's an annual ranking of the UK's highest-performing franchise brands, supported by HSBC UK, and judged by a panel of more than 25 industry professionals. That panel includes the CEO of the British Franchise Association, the UK Head of Franchising at HSBC, and a strong mix of franchise operators, advisors and sector experts. The judging covers eight core criteria: longevity, financial performance, network size and growth, franchisee support, innovation (including technology and ESG), community contribution, and future ambition. It's a broad scorecard, which is the point. A franchise that's commercially strong but offers poor franchisee support won't perform well here. Neither will a franchise that talks a good game on values but can't demonstrate real growth. That breadth is what makes the ranking meaningful. It's not a one-dimensional leaderboard. Why we applied: Honestly? We nearly didn't. We launched the YMWAV franchise in January 2024. By the time the EF100 2026 entries opened, we were less than two years old. We weren't sure we'd built enough of a story yet. We weren't sure our numbers were where they needed to be. We had the results, but we hadn't yet learned to talk about them with confidence. What changed was a conversation with a prospective franchisee who listed the EF100 as one of the things they'd look for before making a decision. That made it real. If people are using this as a filter, you want to be on it. So we applied. And we put a lot of thought into it. What the application process taught us: The eight criteria aren't just a list of boxes to tick. Working through them properly is an exercise in understanding your own business. You can't answer questions about franchisee support, innovation, and community impact without actually having done those things. And if you've done them but never documented them properly, the process forces you to. There were sections where I felt confident. Our franchisee support structure is something we've built carefully. Our growth numbers are real and well evidenced. There were other sections where I had to think harder and where I realised we needed to be better at capturing what we were actually doing day to day. That, on its own, is worth the application. What it meant to be included: Your Man With A Van was named in the Elite Franchise Top 100 for 2026. For a franchise that had been operating for less than two years at the time of entry, that felt significant. Not because it meant we'd arrived. We're still building. But because it told the people looking at us from the outside that an independent panel of 25 experienced industry professionals had looked at our model, our numbers, our culture, and our plans, and found them worth recognising. In a crowded franchise marketplace, that matters. Prospective franchisees have a lot of options and not always enough information to make a properly informed decision. Third-party recognition removes some of the noise. If you're considering applying for 2027: Entries for the EF100 2027 typically open in August. If you're a franchisor who hasn't applied before, here is the most useful thing I can tell you: start earlier than you think you need to. Not because the application is complicated, but because the best submissions are the ones where the franchisor has taken time to gather evidence, speak to franchisees, and tell the story of their network clearly and honestly. The brands that rush it at the end of September show it. Also: don't discount yourself. We nearly talked ourselves out of applying because we were young. If your model is solid, your franchisees are happy, and you can demonstrate real growth and genuine support, you have a case worth making. The EF100 isn't just for the household names. It's for the brands doing the work properly, whatever size they are. The UK franchise sector has 1,009 active systems, contributes £19.1 billion to the economy, and has a 20-year failure rate below 6%. It's a sector with a strong story to tell. Awards like the EF100 help tell it. If you want to know more about what the application process looks like in practice, feel free to reach out. We've been through it and we're happy to share what we learned. Author Cat Robson-Scarborough is Co-Director of Your Man With A Van, the UK's fastest-growing man with a van franchise. YMWAV was named in the Elite Franchise Top 100 for 2026 and holds 10+ industry awards. Find out more at yourmanwithavan.com/franchise