LYNX Franchising Announces Scott Zide as Chief Executive Officer

After numerous acquisitions and diversification of their franchise offerings into the home services arena, LYNX Franchising has tapped Zide to keep pace with rapid growth

ATLANTA — LYNX Franchising, a multi-branded franchise platform with a complementary collection of B2B essential services and outdoor focused residential services, recently announced that they have promoted Scott Zide as LYNX Franchising’s CEO. This announcement comes as LYNX Franchising has experienced its best year yet, with continuous double-digit organic growth, several acquisitions, and a newly developed partnership with Outdoor Living Brands to expand into residential home services.

Zide, formerly the President and COO of Outdoor Living Brands, a leading franchisor in the outdoor residential services sector, was promoted to CEO several months after LYNX Franchising and Outdoor Living Brands joined forces in September 2020. The investment in Outdoor Living Brands served as a strategic diversification move by LYNX to expand their offerings beyond commercial services into residential home services. To ensure the continued smooth consolidation of LYNX Franchising and Outdoor Living Brands, Chris Grandpre, former Chairman & CEO of Outdoor Living Brands, who joined the LYNX Franchising board of directors in September 2020, has now been named Chairman.

“I am thrilled to take on this new role with LYNX Franchising as the company has made tremendous strides in the past year assembling a portfolio of industry leading commercial and residential service brands poised for explosive growth in the years ahead,” said Zide. “Looking ahead, we aim to continue this momentum as we aggressively look for opportunities to acquire emerging brands and incubate new franchise concepts in our sectors of interest.”

LYNX Franchising operates three leading commercial service franchise systems including JAN-PRO, Intelligent Office, and FRSTeam. In addition, LYNX operates four leading residential service franchise systems through its Outdoor Living Brands platform, including the Archadeck Outdoor Living, Outdoor Lighting Perspectives, Conserva Irrigation, and recently acquired Superior Fence & Rail franchise systems. With a track record of partnering with founders to help accelerate the growth and development of their systems, LYNX Franchising anticipates that they will continue to add to its portfolio of commercial and residential services in the months and year ahead.

Under the leadership of Zide, LYNX Franchising looks to continue its track record of strong system sales growth rates while also improving the attractive unit level economic profiles of the company’s franchise brands. Zide will also be responsible for integrating LYNX Franchising and Outdoor Living Brands into one, unified platform franchise organization.

“I have no doubt that, under the leadership of Scott, LYNX Franchising will continue to diversify its portfolio through being highly acquisitive in the commercial and residential services sectors,” added Grandpre. “Scott has been a key part of every strategic decision that Outdoor Living Brands has made since we formed the company in 2008 and constructed the platform. That work will continue as we continue to integrate LYNX and Outdoor Living Brands. Most importantly, as a former franchisee, Scott has made it a priority to bring the voice of the franchisee into every decision and always puts franchisee’s unit level economics first.”

LYNX Franchising is a portfolio company of MidOcean Partners, a leading private equity firm with an excellent track record investing in successful, growth-focused franchise businesses. LYNX Franchising’s mission is to help people realize their dreams of business ownership through service industry franchising. The company is committed to continually innovating a reliable, best in class mentoring, and support framework to help its franchises and associates grow and prosper.