A local duct and kitchen hood cleaning company founded eight years ago in a former University of Michigan football assistant coach's house is continuing its national franchising expansion and has branched out into carpet cleaning to grow even larger.

The Belfor Franchise Group, which franchises the DUCTZ and HOODZ brands of cleaning services, is housed in the Avis Farms industrial complex in Pittsfield Township just south of the Ann Arbor Airport. President John Rotche started DUCTZ in his home in 2002, and now oversees several areas of the company's growth.

The growth and changes include:

• Belfor Franchising Group purchasing its 26,000-square-foot building from Wayne Avis in late 2009.
• The introduction of the Total Care service, including carpet cleaning.
• Planned construction of a new training area for HOODZ franchisees -- basically a full-service restaurant to be known as Cafe Hoodz.
• The recent acquisition of an Oklahoma company that produces grease traps for restaurant rooftop vents.
• The planned hiring of between 8 and 10 new workers to add to the approximately 35 Ann Arbor employees.
  

Rotche said the strength of Belfor International, a massive company specializing in restoration of buildings after fire, water or storm damage, as well as some larger economic forces have helped DUCTZ and HOODZ keep growing during the recession.

For one thing, Belfor is able to offer large fast-food chains single contracts for duct and hood cleaning.

"There's no national player doing this," Rotche said. "We have the bandwidth ... we're able to fund large accounts."

"The fast-food business is thriving," he added.

Another advantage of moving into the kitchen hood cleaning business -- the HOODZ brand was launched in April 2009 -- is that maintaining hoods is required by local building codes, providing almost guaranteed return business, Rotche said.

"HOODZ is 100 percent recession-proof," he said.

The larger economic downturn also has provided a constant stream of potential franchisees, he said.

"When unemployment spikes, people are looking for an opportunity," Rotche said, adding that more people exploring possible franchises are "white collar" than in the past.

The hood and duct cleaning industry is "fragmented," he said, allowing for a large franchising brand to gain traction. HOODZ has 75 franchises nationally, and DUCTZ has 170.

That fragmentation and the economic downturn may have been responsible for membership in the National Air Duct Cleaners Association dropping more than 4 percent from 2007 to 2008, before returning to 2007 levels last year.

The acquisition of the Oklahoma company is in line with Belfor's overall strategy of building on its existing services with new offerings, Rotche said. The idea is that after installing the grease traps, DUCTZ or HOODZ cleaners would make return visits to clients to clean the traps. Belfor also owns the chemical company that supplies cleansers to DUCTZ and HOODZ. Belfor Franchising Group has $18 million in total revenue and employs 30 people.

For Rotche, leading one of the fastest growing franchises in the country -- providing such perks as a basketball hoop in his office -- is the end of an unusual journey. 

An injury kept him from playing on the University of Michigan football team, but he served on the coaching staff instead. After college, he worked for Domino's Pizza, starting as the manager of the headquarters store. He also had a stop at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Coffee at the time the company went public.

He got involved in DUCTZ originally as what he called a "passive investment" with his brother-in-law. But he said he saw the franchising opportunity in the company, and got a huge boost with some high-profile jobs in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. 

Along the way, the company strategically purchased a competitor in Florida, was purchased itself by Service Brands International, and finally by Belfor.

"It was really about mergers and acquisitions," Rotche said.

He said a good strategy can make up for lack of time or history in a certain industry.

"I don't believe time has anything to do with success," he said. "You can bypass time with strategy."

Dan Meisler is a freelance reporter.