Dream Doors and Quest Mt Maunganui win NZ franchise awards

Dream Doors NZ and the owners of Quest Mt Maunganui Apartment Hotel have taken the top honours at the 2026 New Zealand Franchise Awards, recognising achievement at both network and individual business level. The awards also celebrated long-serving franchisees and contributions to New Zealand’s franchise community.

Supreme honours for two different businesses

Dream Doors NZ was named Supreme Franchise System of the Year, while Tere and Avelien Strickland of Quest Mt Maunganui Apartment Hotel won Supreme Franchisee of the Year.

The results bring together two different franchise propositions: kitchen renovations and apartment hotel accommodation. They also highlight the distinction between recognition for a franchise system and recognition for the people running an individual franchised business.

For Dream Doors, the supreme title marks a new milestone. Franchise New Zealand’s account of the results says the business had previously won Home & Lifestyle Franchise System of the Year twice, but had not previously secured the supreme system award.

The Stricklands’ award places the operators of Quest Mt Maunganui Apartment Hotel at the centre of the franchisee honours. Their title is specifically a franchisee award, rather than the supreme system award for the wider Quest network.

That distinction matters when interpreting the results: the two supreme honours recognise achievement at different levels of franchising, and should not be treated as interchangeable endorsements.

Auckland gathering celebrates the wider community

The 31st New Zealand Franchise Awards brought finalists, winners, peers and supporters together for a gala dinner at Auckland’s Grand Millennium hotel.

According to Franchise New Zealand, eleven franchise brands and one adviser were represented among those receiving awards. The evening therefore extended beyond the two headline winners, recognising a broader range of businesses and people across the franchise community.

The awards coverage described the event as celebrating business success and service and support delivered to franchisees, employees and customers. That breadth gives the occasion a wider focus than network expansion or new outlet openings alone.

Alongside the competitive awards, the event included new inductees to the Hall of Fame and Life Membership of the Franchise Association of New Zealand (FANZ). These honours sat alongside recognition for business owners whose involvement in franchising has continued over many years.

In total, 19 franchisees were recognised for their long tenure as franchise business owners. Their inclusion gave established operators a place in the celebrations alongside the year’s award-winning systems and franchisees.

Category awards separate systems from operators

The awards programme included Franchisee of the Year and Franchise System of the Year honours across three categories: Retail & Hospitality, Home & Lifestyle, and Business to Business.

This structure allows both network-level and individual operator achievement to be recognised within each category. It also provides useful context for readers looking beyond the supreme titles to understand what a particular award represents.

Dream Doors’ earlier Home & Lifestyle system wins form part of that context. Its first supreme system title adds to an existing record of category recognition, rather than representing its first appearance among the winners.

For prospective franchisees reviewing award announcements, the category, recipient and year are all worth noting. A system award and an individual franchisee award tell different stories about the business being recognised, even when they appear in the same announcement.

What the results mean for prospective franchisees

The winners offer two starting points for anyone exploring franchise opportunities: a kitchen renovation network recognised at system level, and apartment hotel operators recognised at franchisee level.

Awards can help identify businesses to investigate, but they should sit alongside a buyer’s own assessment of the opportunity. Recognition does not replace checking the proposed location, investment requirements, franchise agreement or the support available to an incoming owner.

A useful next step is to ask an award-winning network how its approach to support translates into everyday help for franchisees, and to speak with existing operators about their experience.

The practical takeaway: use the 2026 results to inform a shortlist, distinguish system honours from operator honours, and follow the recognition with careful due diligence.