05/03/2023
How Koydol Set A New Standard For Commercial Flooring
The emerging franchise is prioritizing the needs of general contractors to break away from competitors in the segment.
In recent years, commercial flooring brand Koydol has made a name for itself as a reliable and effective provider of flooring solutions in the construction industry. Now, as the brand launches its franchise opportunity, it’s worth taking a look at how Koydol broke away from the pack to become the leading name in commercial flooring.
Though Koydol is preparing to launch its first franchise location in 2022, the brand actually goes back to 2006, when president and CEO Amadou T. Agne set out to fulfill his dream of business ownership. At the time, Agne wasn’t entirely sure what kind of company this would be, so he gave it a name that would ring true regardless of which direction the business took. Koydol is a West African expression in the Fulani Tribe that roughly translates to “a strong desire or dream” and that’s exactly what Agne had: a strong desire not only to build a business, but to make his business the best at what it does. 15 years later, Agne has accomplished exactly that, having turned Koydol into a well-respected name in commercial flooring.
“Even when I was still figuring out what Koydol would be, I knew one thing for certain: that I wanted it to be the best at what it does,” Agne said. “Being a successful company was not the goal. The goal was to create something that went above and beyond what was currently being offered in the market.”
Agne experimented with his commercial flooring business for eight years before launching in 2014 to work out the kinks. By that point, Agne had years of experience working with general contractors, but rather than taking what he’d learned from that experience to start his own GC business, Agne decided to use his intimate knowledge of the GC world to better serve the biggest players in that industry.
“I had learned everything about general contracting, and the most obvious path forward was to get into that business myself, but I kept returning to the question of ‘How do I do something that no one else is doing?’ And that’s when I realized that by starting a subcontracting business, I could use my knowledge of the GC side to edge out all competitors on the subcontracting side,” Agne said.
The plan worked, and it worked fast. Just two years after Agne turned Koydol into a commercial flooring brand, one of the largest GCs in the U.S., The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, hired the company to complete the floors for the MGM National Harbor in Maryland — a massive project for a growing company, and one that would put the Koydol brand on the map.
The MGM project was an unequivocal success for Koydol that did not go unnoticed. In turn, the brand started getting contracts from contractors who previously would not have paid much attention to a two-year old flooring brand. And with each new project, Koydol’s profile grew.
“This industry is all about reputation, and we have always been laser-focused on maintaining a shining reputation,” Agne said. “We have developed a level of trust in just a few short years that other brands spend decades trying to achieve.”
That focus on reputation is at the heart of how Koydol stands out in the construction industry. One of the key lessons that Agne brought from the GC world is that contractors are starved for reliability among subcontractors.
“GCs are very accustomed to subcontractors coming up short and not delivering what they promised. It’s one of the most common frustrations in the industry,” he said. “We’ve made a name for ourselves by always delivering. We have a whatever-it-takes mentality, and that has made us a go-to brand for GCs.”
In fact, Agne says Koydol’s entire business model is designed to meet the needs, and exceed the expectations of, GCs.
“I know the GC side well, which is a major advantage as a subcontractor,” he said. “I know how they operate, I know how they think, and we designed every aspect of Koydol’s operational model to appeal to GCs so that we could edge out all of their other options in our field.”
As Koydol prepares to expand with its new franchise opportunity, Zhanibek Zhumadil, Koydol’s executive vice president of corporate strategy and operations, says the brand is adamant about maintaining its sterling reputation and commitment to the needs of GCs as it hands the reigns to franchise owners in new markets.
“Agne’s goal has always been to be the best, and our whole business model is designed to achieve that,” Zhumadil said. “As we onboard our first franchisees, we’re not simply giving them the keys and hoping they do as good a job as we’ve done; we’ve built a model that, at its core, allows franchise owners to be the best commercial flooring provider in any city.”
To that end, Zhumadil says Koydol is not looking for just any entrepreneur to open a franchise; the brand’s leadership is looking for a select few franchisees with experience in the flooring industry who share Koydol’s strong desire to be the best and who can operate large territories, each of which will include roughly $5–$10 million in projects after five years of being in business.
“We spent 15 years building an incredible business,” Zhumadil said. “We’ve made all the mistakes that come along with starting a business from scratch, and we’ve refined the business so our franchise owners don’t have to make those same mistakes. We are looking for people who share our grit and passion, people who know how to get involved in their communities and build relationships, and people who are not satisfied with moderate success — they want to be the best.”
The cost to open a Koydol franchise ranges from $79,500 to $122,000, including a $30,000 franchise fee. For more information on franchising with Koydol, visit http://www.koydolflooring.com or call 202-449-9525.
