THE FRANCHISEES of a pet food business in Calne have spoken of their delight to be shortlisted for an award at this year's British Franchise Association awards.

Following a challenging business presentation and a grilling by six franchise judges Matthew and Jenny Snell, who have been married for six years, are excited to be listed as a finalist for this year's Microbusiness Franchise of the Year.

Mr Snell said: "There are 40,000 eligible businesses available for this award and to be in the last three is delightful. We are very grateful for people's interest in our business as we are only just going into our fourth year now and it is quite an achievement to get on the BFA's radar for this in that time.

"Jenny has already bought four dresses and we have some friends coming with us that have been so supportive over the years to join out table on the night. It could be a messy one!"

After becoming disenchanted with the corporate world, Mr Snell decided to take control of his health and become his own boss and they have expanded their business rapidly, surpassing every single figure target Trophy provide and grown their customer base by 60 per cent.

He said: "I was getting quite poorly through stress in the corporate world and although there were a lot of benefits the job wasn't giving me enough reward beyond financially. We started to look at other options and we had a bit of money to start our own business but we didn't want to do it alone so we started looking into franchises.

"We had to find something that gave me the flexibility I needed and that played to Jenny's strengths and we found something that was pet related and we are both pet people and people see us as that rather than business people and I think that works. We love our customers and they see who we are and why we are doing it."

Mr and Mrs Snell will find out the result of their category at the British Franchise Association awards in Birmingham on Thursday.