With a number of medical and nutrition reports signifying that the health of people across the world is suffering because of their weight, LA Weight Loss served nearly a million clients throughout the UK, US and Canada last year. The LA Weight Loss programme combines professional weight loss counselling with personalised meal plans that use everyday foods for a healthy and balanced diet. Today the company has more than 750 centres worldwide and attributes its success to its specialised combination of one-on-one counselling and customised, sensible advice on health and nutrition.

"LA Weight Loss Centres has demonstrated proven success since 1989," says Chairman Harold Katz. "We have sustained over 50 per cent annual growth over the past nine years to position ourselves as the industry leader and are rated the number one weight loss franchise in 2005 by Entrepreneur magazine."

LA Weight Loss is seeking National and Regional Master Franchisees across Europe with priority markets identified as the UK, Ireland and Spain. Looking for entrepreneurs with a background in sales, marketing or management, preferably with experience of multi-unit operations, Katz states: "The most successful owners are those who own multiple centres. Our structure is highly beneficial to aggressive developers - we reward groundbreakers with the right to maximise their investment by helping them get established and granting them room to grow."

Supported by the LA Weight Loss head office, the Master Franchisee's role will be to identify and open a target of 10 or more centres in a territory, hiring and maintaining a management structure to support the centres using the franchisor's business model. Each centre will cost from US$80,000-US$100,000, for which the Master Franchisee receives start-up assistance and continued support during the growth and expansion of the franchise.

Training is offered in operations, sales, marketing, site selection and staffing, with the franchisor providing up-to-date information, proven techniques, procedural support, analysis and feedback to improve results and profits.

The Master Franchisee will also benefit from access to sales and communications technologies and a proprietary line of top-selling nutritional products and supplements. "Our overall 'healthy lifestyle package' is what clients have been waiting for," reveals Katz. "The potential is absolutely limitless."