Jim Zockoll, who has died aged 93, was the American-born godfather of franchising within the UK because the founding father of Dyno-Rod, the drain-clearing service which discovered its personal particular place in well-liked tradition.
Zockoll’s first profession was as a Pan Am flight engineer, with a sideline in drain work in his home city on Long Island. Arriving in London for a flight layover in late 1962, he was advised by the supervisor of the Kensington Gardens Hotel the place his crew was staying that Christmas catastrophe loomed as a result of a blocked drain necessitated the lifting of the ballroom ground at a possible cost of greater than £40,000.
Zockoll provided to clear the pipes at a fraction of the cost and disruption, however to cost nothing if he didn’t succeed. A couple of days later, utilizing electromechanical “snake rodder” tools flown over from the US, the job was executed in a matter of minutes. Sensing a possibility, Zockoll moved his household to London, transferred his day job to Pan Am’s West Berlin base, and – with the assistance of his English father-in-law and the resort plumber – arrange the business that grew to become Dyno-Rod.
Franchising provided the quickest and most cost-effective method to develop and Dyno-rod was not the primary franchise launch within the UK – the pioneers have been in quick meals – however its American format was nonetheless deeply unfamiliar. On one event when Zollock requested whether or not an promoting salesperson on the cellphone knew the that means of “franchise”, the reply was: “Certainly, it means the right to vote.”
Nevertheless the primary two franchisees have been signed up in 1965 and there have been ultimately 89 of them, assembly the wants of contract clients and huge numbers of distressed emergency callers.
Dyno-Rod established itself as the primary identify for home blockages, its call-out service buying connotations each macho and macabre. One tv advert offered the “Lone Drainer” sprinting into motion – to the William Tell overture as utilized by the “Lone Ranger” western tv sequence – beneath the slogan “Not all masked men are bandits”. And it was a Dyno-Rod operative, Michael Cattran, who in 1983 discovered components of one of many serial killer Dennis Neilson’s victims beneath a drain cowl exterior Neilson’s Muswell Hill flat.
But such connections didn’t deter the prime minister David Cameron from declaring in a 2014 speech launching his “Big Society” initiative of civic duty: “If there are things that are stopping you from doing more, think of me as a giant Dyno-Rod.”
James Francis Zockoll was born on February 14 1930, the youngest of six youngsters of steelworker Fred Zockoll and his spouse Margaret, née O’Toole. He was introduced up in North Braddock on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, finishing his schooling at Scott High School earlier than serving with US forces in Korea as an plane crew chief.
On his return, Zockoll enrolled within the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics and in 1955 he joined Pan American World Airways as a flight engineer on DC6 and DC7 plane, based mostly at Idlewild (now JFK) airport in New York.
When the arrival of the Boeing 707 within the late Nineteen Fifties lowered the necessity for on-board engineers, Zockoll invested in rental properties and began a small drain-cleaning business as a precaution towards redundancy.
But he remained with the airline till 1981, when he retired to concentrate on creating his franchising portfolio. As effectively as Dyno Plumbing and Dyno Secure (providing locksmith providers), he launched the Pit-Stop automobile exhaust service, Autrac cellular engine tuning, Piggy-Back trailers, Texon automobile paint outlets and ZIF parcel supply – plus Old San Francisco ice cream parlours in West Germany.
Dyno-Rod was a founding member of the British Franchise Association in 1977. The Zollock household continued to personal 85 per cent of the business, the rest being held by former Pan Am colleagues. Having abruptly deserted a undertaking to drift on the inventory trade, Jim Zollock bought the Dyno group in 2004 to Centrica – mother or father of British Gas which was a significant Dyno-Rod consumer – for £58 million.
Zollock was by then 74 however entrepreneurship was in his blood and he continued to develop new franchising and model concepts till the top of his life. One of his later passions was for “vanity” business cellphone numbers utilizing letters somewhat than numbers, a standard components within the US – “0800-Plumber”, for instance – however one which he discovered frustratingly gradual to catch on within the UK.
As a philanthropist, Zockoll funded vouchers to supply residents of North Braddock with turkeys for Thanksgiving, helped people and households in want, and was a benefactor of his highschool reunions and the Pan Am Historical Society. He loved singing Frank Sinatra songs at his keyboard, and fishing in Florida.
He grew to become a British citizen in 2017. He married, in 1960, Ann Ware, an English woman he met when she was working in Barkers of Kensington division retailer. She survives him with their two sons.
Jim Zockoll, born February 14 1930, died January 25 2024
