Fresh Coat Painters, a leading national residential and commercial painting franchise with over 170 units, is pleased to announce the appointment of Wayne Scherger as its new Chief Operating Officer. Scherger, an experienced franchise executive and co-founder of CertaPro Painters, will leverage his extensive background in franchising, home services and executive coaching to drive revenue growth, implement new systems and foster leadership development at Fresh Coat Painters.

Scherger, who began his franchising journey in 1981 as a franchisee with College Pro Painters, has held various roles in the franchise world, including franchisor, area developer and master franchisee. He co-founded both CertaPro Painters, the largest residential painting contractor in North America, and ProTect Painters, which was acquired by Service Brands International and later sold to Neighborly. Scherger has coached clients on leadership development and strategic initiatives across five continents since 2010 and currently runs a small business called Peer Groups Forum, a peer group advisory board company.

“I have a long history in both the franchise world and the home services world,” Scherger said. “I’ve seen both of those industries from all possible angles.”

As someone who has kept their finger on the pulse of the franchise industry over the years, Scherger says he first heard about Fresh Coat Painters back when the brand started in 2004. He kept an eye on the brand’s development and, after looking for something new following the COVID-19 pandemic, he reached out to Fresh Coat President Tara Riley and asked if they were interested in working together to scale the business.

“My goal is always to double revenue and profits in three years or less — I call it the ‘double-double’ strategy — and Fresh Coat is in the right position to implement that strategy,” Scherger said. “It is not a start-up. There is a lot of traction already with a good footprint, great culture and strong franchise owners. It just needs a little bit of energy, systems and processes. Tara thought I’d be a good fit for the brand. I bring a lot of new ideas, best practices, strategies and initiatives.”

Now, in addition to driving revenue, Scherger’s mission in his role as COO is to implement new internal systems and share skills through leadership development programs focusing on helping emerging franchisees scale their business properly and profitably. Scherger also plans to roll out a robust peer group program and launch a Profitability Accelerator program in the next couple of months.

“Oftentimes, emerging franchisees just need the right skills to scale their business,” Scherger said. “That may be bringing on a production manager or estimator, building recurring revenue or anything else. Whether it be hiring, coaching, problem-solving, content management — my goal is to train franchisees and help them double their revenue and profit.”

Having started his new role in November 2022, Scherger has already spent time evaluating the business and is now focused on coaching, re-allocating resources and engaging with franchise owners.

“My ultimate goal is to get Fresh Coat Painters to $100 million in revenue and 250 franchisees as fast as I can, as well as create a large number of million-dollar owners,” Scherger said. “But I couldn’t do that alone — Fresh Coat has an amazing team and network of franchisees, and I am thrilled to be joining them as we work together to take this brand to the next level.”