Aubrey Franks set up his business as an optician and fine art dealer in King Street in about 1878. For several years, the specialty of the business was spectacles, but Aubrey soon began to make and sell other optical instruments, such as microscopes, telescopes and magic lanterns. In about 1881, the company acquired additional premises which gave it a commanding position at the corner of King Street and Deansgate. Seven years later, Aubrey took over his father Joseph's business on Market Street. Aubrey's business prospered and, by the 1890s, sold all kinds of optical and mathematical instruments, photographic and electrical equipment. One of his products, the Presto camera, was a very simple, fairly cheap camera, which was quite successful: Aubrey had sold more than 28,000 in 10 years, some of which were sold in Europe. In 1897, the firm gave the first demonstration of Edison's cinematograph in the north of England.

In about 1917, the business was taken over by Aubrey's son-in-law, Maurice Saffer, who kept the company's name, A. Franks Ltd. He was an astute and enterprising businessman who expanded the business considerably. Under his management, Franks Ltd became the first firm to bring radio and television to the Manchester area. During the 1920s, the firm's main premises remained at King Street/Deansgate, but there were also branches on Oxford Street, Victoria Street and Market Street, a wholesale department on South King Street and a branch at Bradshaw Gate in Bolton. The Victoria Street branch had been taken over from the optician Aaron Aronsberg.

In 1927, Manchester's first television picture was received ‘by wireless’ at the Market Street shop. Three years later, televisions were being offered for sale at Market Street and Deansgate. At the time, a television set cost twenty-five guineas. The firm continued to prosper and was managed by Maurice Saffer until his death in 1947. As he had no children, his secretary managed the business for three years and then sold it to the opticians Dollond & Aitchison in 1950.