32 Business View Magazine - October 2016
education, and a path for those people, he began fran-
chising the Wild Birds Unlimited concept.
“Initially, he had a partner who was in the wholesale
side of the bird feeding industry and they began, very
slowly, franchising. Jim’s wife, Nancy, came into the
business, full-time, a few years later, and in 1989, Jim
and Nancy bought out the partner. At that point,” Pick-
ett concludes, “I met Jim and Nancy, and was hired
as the first, full-time staff member for the Wild Birds
Unlimited franchise, and we started growing. They had
grown to 29 stores between 1983 and 1989, and now
we’re at 303, with ten more in process.”
Just as they did in the beginning, today, Pickett says that
the vast majority of Wild Birds Unlimited franchisees in
the U.S. and Canada come to the company because
they’ve engaged with the brand in some way. “They’ve
either been customers, or they have visited a cousin, a
mother, or a nephew and that person has said, ‘Let me
take you to my favorite store,’” he explains. “Typically,
they are engaged in the hobby at some level. Most of
them are passionate about it; some of them are more
casual. But they like birds, they like nature, they love
the hobby of bird feeding.”
