The India Franchising Blog

ZICA Expands it Animation Franchise Portfolio and Looks at expanding its education training franchise agressively

2010-09-09T02:32:00.000-07:00

With the demand for animators growing in India, Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA), a Zee Network company, is in the expansion mode.

The company is all set to open 35 more franchises by the end of this year across the country. "Our assessment shows there is demand for nearly 300,000 animators in the country by 2013. Keeping this in mind, we are opening nearly 35 more franchises in the country," said Atul Sharma Regional Marketing Manager of the company.

After opening its centres in major cities, ZICA, a classical and digital training institute in animation, is now expanding in tier-II cities like Dehra Dun.

The company, which is presently running nearly 28 franchises in India, has also opened its first centre in Dehra Dun to start 12 courses offering degrees, diplomas and certificates in 2D and 3D animation, visual effects and gaming.

Tags:ZICA, Zee Institute Of Creative Arts, Zee Franchise, animation franchise, atul sharma, training institute franchise, Training Franchise,3d animation franchise, Gaming Franchise.

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

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2010-09-09T02:03:00.000-07:00

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This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

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2010-09-09T01:52:00.000-07:00

Please visit the india franchise blog on http://indiafranchiseblog.blogspot.com/ as we have moved all content from here to that site.

Tags:India franchise blog, india blog, franchise blog, franchise india blog, india franchising blog, india franchise bloggers, blogging on indian franchising, blog on india franchise

Using China Business Strategy To Grow Business In India: Adopting Different Country Learnings

2010-09-09T00:33:00.000-07:00

With the world globalizing and inter-country collobaration is on its highest ever there are learnings that are transfered from one region to the other.When multinational brands entered and tried to conquer market share in the Middle Kingdom 20 years ago, they encountered the same problems they face in India now – how does one market effectively to such a diverse market, where statistics are unreliable and tastes change often, yet sell in a value driven economy? In lieu of encountering a similar market in the same region with alike issues, many companies are replicating best management practices adopted successfully in China in the Indian market.

With economic and cultural similarities and purchasing decisions aligned, marketing managers across multinational companies are bringing their best marketing and distribution ideas tried and tested in China to India. Take Coca Cola for example, known for its revolutionary, fierce and strong branding, the company recently asked its independent franchisee bottlers in India to weigh a new distribution and manufacturing model it follows in China. The new model involves pooling investments and setting up common manufacturing capacities, and would mainly be for non-carbonated drinks. The Atlanta-based beverage maker’s top brass discussed benefits of shared resources and pooling investments with its franchisee bottlers last month in Shanghai, China

Under the proposal, independent bottlers would split their investments and share the returns equally among themselves. As bottling investments take about five-six years to bring returns, the move would help the bottlers in freeing large amount of money, a model that is expected to work in nations like China and India where distribution of aerated drinks in a problem and large investments are hard to come by.

Hence it is interested to see how these new strategies define the way businesses are transacted in the coming times in these developing countries and how these business expansion strategies, will unfold in the coming times.

Tags:Business Strategy, Expand Business, Grow Business, Business Consultants, franchise consultants, how to expand business, business expansion strategies, franchise recruitment, franchise development,

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Amul Slows Down On Its Franchise Expansion Of Retail Outlets Over Last Fiscal

2010-09-07T02:09:00.000-07:00

Utterly Butterly Slowly

The Amul girl seems to have slowed down. The aggressive retail expansion drive launched by the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns and markets the Amul and Sagar brand of milk and milk products, has lost momentum.

Amul could add only 700-800 retail parlours in fiscal 2009-10, which was a marked slowdown from the previous year’s addition of 2,000 outlets. As a result, the total number of operational Amul Preferred Outlets (APO) is only 5,000, which is exactly half the original target of having 10,000 retail outlets.

The target was set by GCMMF Chairman Parthi Bhatol while addressing Amul’s 35th annual general meeting. "Taking a cue from the success of our parlours, we plan to add 6,000 more such outlets by the end of 2009-10, taking the total tally to 10,000", Bhatol had said. What Amul finally achieved in the financial year was a shade over 10 per cent of that target.

The ambitious expansion plan was triggered by the rapid addition of 2,000 retail outlets in FY 2008-09. Amul had a total of 4,300 operational retail parlours in 2008-09.

"The retail expansion has slowed down," says a GCMMF board member, who did not want to be quoted.

An email sent to GCMMF seeking reasons for the slowing down of retail expansion remained unanswered, but an executive says the expansion was hampered by the general economic downturn in 2009-10.

Though it has missed its original target by a long shot, Amul seems to be satisfied with the progress. "It is not just a number game. Setting up a network of 10,000 outlets is a mammoth task. Amul added two outlets every day across the country, while others were closing down their retail stores in 2009-10 in the wake of the recession," the official says.

The parlours are run on franchise-based model and GCMMF says the recessionary phase in 2009-10 led to a decline in the investment appetite of its franchise partners.

In order to rapidly increase the number of its retail outlets, Amul had identified locations such as railways, airports and posh areas in major cities. "Rolling out retail parlours at railway stations requires specific approvals and sometimes the launch gets affected due to delays in receiving approvals," Bhatol says. Amul currently has around 150 retail stalls at various railway stations across the country and had planned to add 300 more in 2009-10.

Amul officials also maintain that setting up scooping parlours, which sell Amul ice-cream, in posh areas of Mumbai, Delhi and other metros is time-consuming as it is difficult to find suitable locations at affordable prices in these cities. GCMMF at present operates 400 such parlours across India.

The slow pace of expansion, however, has not affected the performance of the company. Revenue from retail operations surged to Rs 300 crore in 2009-10 from Rs 200 crore and Rs 107 crore in 2008-09 and 2007-08 respectively.

Amul, say officials, is back into the growth mode this year and would have 10,000 outlets by the end of fiscal 2010-11. "So far, we have approved 6,381 retail outlets, of which 5,000 are operational and the rest will soon start working," the official says.

What may help is the fact that the long uncertainty following the battle for power at GCMMF has finally ended, as the move to replace Bhatol as chairman was defeated late last month. A board meeting, called to decide on a no-confidence motion against Bhatol, was cancelled after all the 13 board members except Bhatol stayed away. Ten board members had issued the motion, claiming they had lost faith in Bhatol’s leadership, but did not vote against him when the time came.

The Rs 8,000 crore cooperative has at least three million members from 12,000 villages across the state. Bhatol became its chairman in 2006 after then board members, including him, passed a no-confidence motion against founder-chairman Verghese Kurien

Tags:Amul Franchise, Sagar Franchise, Amul Preferred Outlets,(APO), Parthi Bhatol, GCMMF, franchise-based model, railway station franchise, Amul Ice Cream Franchise,Verghese Kurien, Dairy Franchise,

Source: Sify Finance, Kalpesh Damor ,2010-09-06 00:50:00

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Pizza Hut Franchise Named The Most Trusted Food Service Brand by Economic Times (India) Brand Equity For 2010

2010-09-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

KFC India Receives Recognition in Top Food Service Brands

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -(// BUSINESS WIRE //)- The Economic Times' (India) Brand Equity Most Trusted Brands 2010 annual survey has named Pizza Hut the "Most Trusted Food Service Brand' in India for the sixth year, ahead of all other Indian and global food service brands. Pizza Hut is also the only restaurant company to place in the Top 20 Service Brands list. KFC India was recognized for the first time by the survey with a spot in the top five of trusted food service brands. Pizza Hut and KFC India are part of Yum! Restaurants International (YRI), a division of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), the world's largest restaurant company in terms of system units.

"Congratulations to our entire team in India," said Graham Allan, Chief Executive Officer, Yum! Restaurants International. "To be recognized for the sixth year as the most trusted food service brand is a true testament to our employees and franchisees. Their hard work, passion and professionalism have been instrumental in making Pizza Hut and KFC leaders in the food service rankings. India is an important emerging market for us. Both Pizza Hut and KFC are proving very popular with consumers and we recently introduced Taco Bell to India with a restaurant in Bangalore. We continue to make significant investments in India as part of our plan to capitalize on this large and rapidly growing market of more than 1 billion people," added Allan.

The Brand Equity Most Trusted Brands Survey, which appears in The Economic Times' September 1 edition, ranks the brands that have earned the trust and loyalty of consumers across India. The survey, conducted by ACNielsen's ORG–MARG market research company, asked more than 8,000 participants, across different socio–economic, age, income and geographic backgrounds, various questions in order to determine each company's overall trust score about the brands that consumers believe provide quality, consistency and reassurance.

"We are honored to have our Pizza Hut and KFC brands recognized as the most trusted food service brands in India," said Niren Chaudhary, managing director, Yum! Restaurants International India. "The recognition reflects six years of Pizza Hut's leading reputation in India and consumers' enthusiasm for the Brand and demonstrates how we have successfully developed a strong Pizza Hut and KFC presence, highly skilled workforce and an innovative menu. This honor also recognizes the hard work of our passionate franchisees and Customer Maniacs in our restaurants who help provide outstanding service to our customers daily."

Over the past 12 years, Yum! has become the largest and fastest growing restaurant company in India. As of the second quarter 2010 earnings, the Company had 159 Pizza Huts in 33 cities offering a range of localized products including masala pizza, chicken tikka appetizers and spicy Indian drinks. KFC is the fastest growing quick–service restaurant brand in India with 75 restaurants in 13 cities as of second quarter 2010 earnings. KFC is a young, vibrant brand in India from its contemporary restaurant designs featuring bold colors, open seating areas for large groups and flat–panel televisions to innovative marketing programs to unique signature products, including vegetarian items. The Company also opened the first Taco Bell in India earlier this year. By 2015, the Company forecasts 1,000 KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants in India, up from 235 restaurants as of second quarter 2010.

YRI, based in Dallas, Texas, is the largest division of Yum! Brands with more than 14,000 restaurants outside the U.S. and China. One of Yum! Brands' four key business strategies is to drive aggressive international expansion and build strong brands everywhere. In 2009, operating profit for YRI was $491 million. The year 2009 also marked the tenth year that YRI has opened more than 900 new restaurants outside the U.S. and China.

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Ky., is the world's largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants with more than 37,000 restaurants in more than 110 countries and territories. The company is ranked #216 on the Fortune 500 List, with revenues of nearly $11 billion in 2009. Four of the company's restaurant brands – KFC, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's and Taco Bell – are the global leaders of the chicken, quick–service seafood, pizza and Mexican–style food categories. A&W Restaurants is the longest running quick–service franchise chain in America. Outside the United States, the Yum! Brands system opened more than four new restaurants each day of the year, making it a leader in international retail development. The Company has consistently been recognized for its reward and recognition culture, diversity leadership, community giving, and consistent shareholder returns. In 2007, the Company launched World Hunger Relief, the world's largest private sector hunger relief effort to raise awareness, volunteerism and funds to benefit the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and other hunger relief agencies. To date, this effort has raised nearly $60 million for WFP and other hunger relief agencies and is helping to provide approximately 250 million meals, saving the lives of millions of people in remote corners of the world where hunger is most prevalent.

Tags:Pizza Hut Franchise, Graham Allan, Niren Chaudhary, passionate franchisees, KFC Franchise, YRI, Yum Franchises, taco bell franchise, qsr franchise, quick service restaurants franchise.

Source:Business Wire/Press Release on Sep 3, 2010.

TA Associates Invests In One Of India's Largest Healthcare Franchise Dr Lal PathLabs. (LPL).

2010-09-06T03:05:00.000-07:00

BOSTON & MUMBAI, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm, today announced a minority investment in Dr Lal PathLabs (LPL), one of India’s largest chains of pathology laboratories, by purchasing half of Sequoia Capital’s stake. Sequoia Capital has been an investor in Dr Lal PathLabs since 2005.

“We are happy to partner with TA Associates to continue to support the ambitious growth plans of the company”

Dr Lal PathLabs was founded in New Delhi in 1949 by Dr. (Major) S.K. Lal as a single laboratory in central Delhi. Today, the company, under the stewardship of Dr. Arvind Lal, Chairman, and Dr. Om Manchanda, CEO, has grown rapidly to become one of the country’s largest diagnostic networks comprising two state-of-the-art central laboratories, 55 satellite laboratories, 850 collection centers and 2,500 pick-up points.

“Dr Lal PathLabs is an exciting growth story and a highly compelling investment opportunity,” said Naveen Wadhera, Director, TA Associates Advisory Pvt. Ltd., who will join the company’s Board of Directors. “Over the last 60 years, LPL has made a name for itself, particularly in Delhi and the National Capital Region, by providing the highest quality diagnostic lab tests and service levels to consumers. The company has achieved especially strong growth recently under the leadership of Dr. Lal and Dr. Manchanda, and we anticipate significant growth opportunities through geographical expansion and the strong secular drivers propelling the Indian healthcare industry.”

“We are happy to partner with TA Associates to continue to support the ambitious growth plans of the company,” said Sandeep Singhal, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India. “I am confident that Dr. Lal and Dr. Manchanda, who have built one of the strongest healthcare franchises in India, will continue to out-execute and out-perform competition in this space.”

Dr Lal PathLabs offers a range of more than 1,700 diagnostic tests to consumers, from routine biochemistry tests to more complex molecular tests, and tested over three million patients in the last fiscal year. The company is accredited by the College of American Pathologists and the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration of Laboratories, and has achieved ISO 9001 2000 certification for its laboratories.

“TA Associates and Sequoia Capital form an ideal investor group for our company,” said Dr. Arvind Lal, Chairman, Dr Lal PathLabs. “TA brings a wealth of healthcare investment experience, a fast-growing presence in the Indian market, and top-flight strategic resources that will enable our company to continue its strong growth trajectory. Sequoia Capital remaining as a shareholder and board member is a strong positive of this deal as we can continue to benefit from their ability to add value to achieve our objectives.”

Dr. Om Manchanda, CEO, Dr Lal PathLabs, said, “Over the last five years, LPL has built a formidable management team, which has in-depth exposure in the healthcare space on the back of diverse industry experience. LPL has so far been concentrating on greenfield expansions. Now, we are embarking on an aggressive growth plan that includes acquisitions. By the end of 2011, we are intent on having a 100-strong laboratory network, 1,000 collection centers and 3,000 pick-up points across India. The presence of both TA Associates and Sequoia Capital on the LPL board now gives us the leverage of accessing funds for adopting this ambitious growth plan. The LPL team looks forward to receiving strategic inputs from TA Associates, which has invested in healthcare companies around the world.”

TA Associates has more than four decades of investing experience, focusing on profitable growth companies. TA’s prior investments in the healthcare sector include Alere Medical, AmeriChoice, CompBenefits, Invitrogen, MQ Associates, National Imaging Associates, Triumph HealthCare and Twin Med. TA’s previous investments in India include GlobeOp Financial Services, Idea Cellular and Micromax Informatics Limited.

TA Associates Advisory Pvt. Ltd. provided advisory services to TA Associates in India. Ernst & Young served as financial advisors and Lexygen and Goodwin Procter provided legal counsel to TA Associates. JM Financial served as financial advisors, and Luthra & Luthra and AZB provided legal counsel to Dr Lal PathLabs and Sequoia Capital, respectively.

About Dr Lal PathLabs

Dr Lal PathLabs is India’s leading diagnostics and pathology services company. The company has a distinguished track record of providing medical diagnostic services in India for over 60 years. Its operations incorporate state-of-the-art testing equipment and methodologies and strongly leverage advanced communication infrastructure. Dr Lal PathLabs offers today the widest range of testing parameters available under one roof in India.

About TA Associates

Founded in 1968, TA Associates is one of the largest and most experienced middle market private equity firms. The firm has invested in over 400 companies and manages more than US $16 billion in capital. With offices in Boston, London, Menlo Park and Mumbai, TA Associates leads buyouts and minority recapitalizations of profitable growth companies in the technology, financial services, business services, healthcare and consumer industries.

About Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital currently manages funds capitalized at close to US $1.8 billion and invests across venture, growth and late stage opportunities in India. It takes a long term view on investments and plays the role of an active, value added partner to entrepreneurs, business families and management teams. Over the last nine years, Sequoia Capital has invested in more than 50 Indian companies, including Café Coffee Day, Comviva (Bharti Telesoft), Dr Lal PathLabs, Edelweiss, Firstsource, GVK Biosciences, Idea Cellular, Ind-Barath Power, Just Dial, Shaadi.com and SKS Microfinance. Sequoia Capital operates out of offices in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi.

Globally, Sequoia Capital has an unparalleled track record of partnering with entrepreneurs to create global market leaders. Sequoia Capital has been an early investor in companies such as Google, Cisco, Yahoo, YouTube, Oracle and Apple Computers. Sequoia Capital maintains dedicated teams in the U.S., China, India and Israel.

Tags:Dr Lal PathLabs, Dr Lal PathLabs Franchise, Pathology Franchise, Dr S.K. Lal, Dr Arvind Lal, Dr Om Manchanda, TA Associates, Naveen Wadhera, Sandeep Singhal, Sequoia Capital, Medical Franchise

Source:Business Wire News. Press Release Dt August25, 2010 11:38 AM Eastern Daylight Time.

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Thomas Cook Appoints Franchise In North East India at Dimapur, Assam

2010-09-02T04:42:00.000-07:00

Thomas Cook, one of India’s leading travel agency launched its gold circle branch at Zhimomi auto mobiles building on Wednesday. The franchisee taken up by M/s KAZ enterprises will provide air, rail, cruise ticketing, visa and passport related services, travel insurance and foreign exchange facilities also. It may also be added that Dimapur is the only city after Guwahati in the entire NE to have a franchisee of TCIL.

Addressing the gathering, KAZ enterprises proprietor Atomi Zhimomi expressed hope that the outlet will open up huge avenues of travel across the World.

“There is something for everyone” he asserted. Further he also lauded the government under CM Neiphiu Rio for bringing about a peaceful environment which he added has made tourism sector possible.

General Manager – travel business Anamitra Biswas also gave a brief profile on the company.

The various facilities provided by TCIL includes group escorted tours to Europe and the rest of the world, customized package that suit specific needs, cruises from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean to the rest of the world and travel essentials such as insurance, foreign exchange.

Thomas Cook Group plc is one of the world’s leading leisure travel groups with sales of £9.3 billion and 22.1 million customers and operates under five geographic segments in 21 countries.

Tags:Thomas Cook, Thomas Cook Franchise, Travel Franchise, Travel Agency Franchise, KAZ Enterprises, Nagaland Franchise, north east franchise, assam franchise, anamitra biswas,

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

McDonalds India Franchisee Vikram Bakshi On India Learnings and Growth Ahead

2010-09-02T04:06:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI—McDonald's Corp. plans to step up its expansion in India this year and next after finding that the country's new middle class will line up for its fast food, even in the smaller cities.

After opening about 35 new stores this year, Indian franchisees of the U.S. burger chain plan to open 45 branches or more next year, said Vikram Bakshi, managing director of McDonald's operations in the north and east of India. They will have about 210 stores in India by the end of this year, he said. The company expects its revenue to rise by more than 30% this year, he said, with about half of the growth coming from new outlets and half coming from increased spending by existing customers.

"The existing customer is coming in more often and has more money in his pocket," he said.

As McDonald's sets up shop in smaller cities, it is finding pent-up demand, said Mr. Bakshi. After years of watching McDonald's commercials on Indian television, small-city consumers are familiar with the menu, he said, though they don't always understand that you have to line up to order food. "They just sit down and wait for someone to take the order," he said.

In towns and cities like Lucknow, Varanasi, Panipat, Ambala and Meerut, McDonald's branches are mobbed when they first open, with first-time fast-food buyers snapping up items off of the menu unique to India. These include the Chicken Maharaja Mac and the vegetarian McAloo Tikki burger.

A McDonald's restaurant in Noida, located near New Delhi.

Pork and beef products are not sold in McDonald's India franchises, and the kitchen is segregated into vegetarian and non-vegetarian sections.

More than 10,000 customers a day have been flocking to one of McDonald's newest outlets in Bhopal in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

One of the biggest bottlenecks to further growth is infrastructure, said Mr. Bakshi. McDonald's needs good roads for deliveries, uninterrupted power and gas, and shopping areas popular with consumers. Better infrastructure could more than double his McDonald's growth rate in India, he said.

"With the kind of hunger that we have seen for a product like ours, it is very clear that if our infrastructure would improve to the level of China's then our growth would double to 40%, 50% or 60% per year," he said.

Tags:McDonald's Franchise, McDonalds, McDonalds Franchise, Vikram Bakshi, fast food franchise, burger franchise, mac donalds, mc donalds store, mcdonalds india, mc donalds restaurant, india franchisee

Source:The Wall Street Journal, India Business Week, Aug 31,2010, Eric Bellman.

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

California Pizza Kitchen Opens Its First Franchise In Mumbai, India

2010-08-31T03:54:00.000-07:00

California Pizza Kitchen Inc. is opening its first restaurant in India, the restaurant chain said Monday.

The site is being opened by its franchise partner JSMGGC India Pvt. Ltd., a joint venture between JSM Corp. and Gourmet Gulf Co.

The 4,000 square-foot restaurant will be located in the upscale Bandra Kurla Complex district of Mumbai.

California Pizza Kitchen has 264 restaurants, 207 of them company-owned, and the rest operating under franchise or license agreements. Of those, 31 restaurants are located overseas.

Tags:California Pizza Kitchen Franchise,California Pizza Kitchen, Pizza Franchise, Italian Fast Food Franchise,International restaurant franchise, international franchise

Source:Associated Press, Business Bloomberg:Monday, 30 Aug 2010 | 7:16 PM ET

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Academy Of Applied Language Looks at Domestic and International Franchise Expansion

2010-08-28T03:48:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: Academy of Applied Languages (AAL) a foreign language school has entered into a business agreement with language institutes in Seoul and Brasilia and has appointed franchisees in Pune, Gwalior and Delhi.

The company will further reach out to develop business partners in other cities as well. The institute is set up with guidance and support from JNU professors and is headquartered at Gurgaon.

Pankaj Agarwal, the co-founder of AAL claims that the company is geared to set up 300 centres in India and 50 in other countries within the next three years. The company has put aside Rs 350 million to develop and grow the language education business in India and overseas.

Tags:Academy Of Applied Languages, AAL, Foreign Language School Franchise, Business Agreement, business partners, Pankaj Agarwal, language education business, language education franchise,

Source:INDIAMART NEWS, Friday, Aug 27, 17:10:30 PM IST
This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

India Franchise Exhibitions : Things To Do Before, At, After Visiting The Franchise Expo

2010-08-27T22:53:00.000-07:00

Firstly, we attend a franchise exhibition to view and compare a variety of franchise business possibilities. The idea is to see what options are being showcased and whether any of the businesses make for an interesting case. You must be absolutely clear that exhibitors at the primarily want to sell their franchise systems. Be cautious of salespersons who are interested in selling a franchise that you are not interested in.

Initial Research and Primary Questions:
Before you attend, research what type of franchise best suits your investment limitations, experience, and goals. When you attend, specifically choose the opportunity that best suits your needs and then engage the franchiser.

Your Investment Levels:
We have often seen clients saying that they could arrange the funds depending upon the opportunity at hand. Infact, a clear understanding of how much you can invest and in what time period would help you immensely on zeroing on the right type of options within these investments. An exhibitor may tell you how much you can afford to invest or that you can’t afford to pass up this opportunity. Before beginning to explore investment options, consider the amount you feel comfortable investing and the maximum amount you can afford. If you need to arrange funds externally or are seeking financial help for balance amounts, be very clear of the procedure and the time involved in clearing the formalities, as the franchiser might not be willing to wait for too long.

The Right Business For Your Profile:
Whats the right business. How can you pre-define one, before knowing what options are on hand. An exhibitor may attempt to convince you that an opportunity is perfect for you. Only you can make that determination. Consider the industry that interests you before selecting a specific franchise system. Ask yourself the following questions:

Have you considered working in that segment/line of work before?
Can you see yourself engaged in that line of work for the next ten years?
Do you have the necessary background or skills?
How will your family, friends, society perceive you within that business? Is that acceptable to you.If the industry does not appeal to you or you are not suited to work in that industry, do not allow an exhibitor to convince you otherwise. Spend your time focusing on those industries that offer a more realistic opportunity.

Maximise Selective Options
Visit several franchise exhibitors engaged in the type of industry that appeals to you. Listen to the exhibitors’ presentations and discussions with other interested consumers. Get answers to the following questions:
Who are the promoters of the business and whats their background?
How long has the franchisor been in business?
How many franchised outlets currently exist?
Where are they located?
How much is the initial franchise fee and any additional start-up costs?
How will you make money? How much? Whats the pay out to the franchiser?
What management, technical, and ongoing assistance does the franchisor offer?

Why Should You Meet The Franchiser After The Expo:
If you feel an opportunity is really to your liking, the best thing to do, is to just tell the franchiser about your seriousness and to schedule an appointment after the show. Most exhibitors are exhausted and have monotonous answers by the middle of the day. Keep the discussion short, meet them after the show and you will see that they will appreciate your wisdom and approach. Exhibitors may also offer you prizes, free samples, or free dinners if you attend a promotional meeting later that day or over the next week to discuss the franchise in greater detail. Do not feel compelled to attend. Rather, consider these meetings as one way to acquire more information and to ask additional questions. Be prepared to walk away from the sales pitch if the franchise does not suit your needs at any stage.

Return On Investments and Profitability:
Some franchisors may tell you how much you can earn if you invest in their franchise system or how current franchisees in their system are performing. Be careful. Make sure you ask for and obtain written substantiation for any income projections, or income or profit claims. If the franchisor does not have the required substantiation, or refuses to provide it to you, consider its claims to be suspect. Also make a careful analysis of the market in which the franchise is going to operate and try matching it with a similar location within the franchise network.

Make Notes, Take Photographs and Collect Direct Numbers:
We have often seen entrepreneurs taking photographs of the exhibitors. It may be difficult to remember each franchise exhibit. Bring a pad and pen to take notes. Take the franchise marketing kits, franchise marketing leaflets, franchise documents or other promotional literature that you can review. Take the exhibitors’ business cards along with the details of the exact person along with their direct numbers, so you can contact them later with any additional questions.

Take It First Franchise Sales Pitch:
You may be told that the franchisor’s offering is limited, that there is only one territory left, or that this is a one-time reduced franchise sales price. Do not feel pressured to make any commitment. Legitimate franchisers expect you to take time and to investigate their offering. A good deal today should be available tomorrow. Just let your franchiser know that you are serious about the opportunity and are taking the required time to research and decide.

Initial Payments:
We have at times, seen entrepreneurs going to the franchise shows with their cheque books. It is never advisable. Do not sign any contract or make any payment at the franchise exhibition, until you have the opportunity to investigate the franchisor’s offering thoroughly. Take time to speak with current and former franchisees about their experiences. Because investing in a franchise can entail a significant investment, you should have a franchise lawyer/ franchise consultant to review the franchise documents and have an CA to review the company’s financial projection. A experienced franchise consultant can play a very vital role for you at this stage. Take professional help.

Hence you must follow all of the above to buy a reputed franchise business through a franchise exhibition or else, you might end up taking up a franchise that’s not to your liking or is different inside, whilst the cover page looked very interesting at the franchise expo.

Tags:Franchise Events, franchise show, Franchise Exhibition, franchise expo, Franchise list, franchise directory, new franchise, Franchise Options, Top Franchise, best franchise,latest franchise

This Blog is posted by Franchise Bazar, A End To End Franchise Solutions Company, Based at Bangalore, India.We offer customized services to entrepreneurs seeking new business opportunities and franchises.Visit us on www.franchisebazar.com and speak to us, and we are sure we will be able to help you choose a business that fits your skills, experience, investment levels and lifestyle.

Bank Loans For Franchise Business In India.Create Entrepreneurship Thru Financial Institution Participation.

2010-08-27T04:42:00.000-07:00

Retail and franchise solutions provider Franchise India is planning to tie-up with leading public and private sector banks to help provide easy finance to investors keen on setting-up small businesses, a top company official said.

Franchise India is trying to bring-in a formal structure to franchise loans and act as a facilitator to provide easy loans for the benefit of small investors.

"We are working out on this (franchise loans) and are in talks with a few banks currently to develop a more proper and organised format for franchise loans to investors. Currently, the challenge is that the banks do not accept only capital equipment as security," Franchise India's President, Gaurav Marya, told PTI here today.

The franchise business, which is growing at a rate of 30-35 per cent annually will be the next tool to create entrepreneurship with an aim to promote financial inclusion.

The retail consulting firm is already in talks with five leading banks--SBI, HSBC, Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC, Marya said, adding that HDFC and SBI are already providing franchise loans but in a small way.

"It has to be more organised as only five per cent of the entire franchise financing requirement in India is met by financial institutions. Banks don't give industry-specific funding options to brand franchisees and often treat them at par with independent start-up businesses. This perception has to be changed," Marya added.

Tags:franchise loans, franchise lending, Franchise Funding, business loans, Franchise Finance, franchise facilitator,franchise assistance, franchising loans, franchisee loan, franchiser loan.

Source: PTI,04:08 PM,Aug 27,2010.

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Ahmedabad, Followed By Bangalore and Mumbai-Top 100 Cities For Small Business In India.

2010-08-27T00:07:00.000-07:00

MUMBAI: Ahmedabad has been rated as the most favourable destination for small businesses in India followed by Bangalore and Mumbai, according to a joint report by consultancy firm Ernst and Young (E&Y) and retail solutions provider, Franchise India. The report gave Gujarat's diamond and textile hub — Surat — the seventh rank, bringing double pleasure to Gujarati businessmen.

The report titled 'Top 100 cities for small business in India' identifies cities, big and small, that have the potential to start and galvanise the growth of small businesses. According to the report, states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have been relatively more proactive towards providing the fitting stratosphere for the prolific growth of small business.

The previous edition of state government's Vibrant Gujarat Global Investment Summit in 2009 had focused on small and medium enterprises. Over 8,000 MoUs were signed by SMEs then. The upcoming summit in 2011, promoted as Davos in Action, too will have a focus on small enterprises. Besides Ahmedabad, Surat has been riding the high wave of optimism, given the spurt in demand for diamonds and textiles, both nationally and the exports markets. "SMEs contribute about 9 per cent of India's GDP. The report highlights some essential pre-requisites while starting a business like demography, infrastructure, retail activity, entrepreneurship and ease of doing business," Franchise India's president, Gaurav Marya, said while launching the report on Thursday.

The essentials were dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit and paying taxes, he said.

Tags:Small Business, Top 100 Cities For Small Business India, Business Ahmedabad,business bangalore, business mumbai, business surat, India SMB, India SME, Start A Small Business,India Small Business

Source:TIMES NEWS NETWORK & AGENCIES, Aug 27, 2010, 12.03am IST TOI.

Read more: Ahmedabad No.1 among 100 cities for small biz - Ahmedabad - City - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Ahmedabad-No1-among-100-cities-for-small-biz/articleshow/6442280.cms#ixzz0xmtvUN4t

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Why The American Spa Giant 'Red Door' Chose India Over China.

2010-08-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

MUMBAI: American spa major Red Door Spa Holdings has bypassed China and zeroed in on India for starting its global operations, a senior company official said.

“India was our first choice over China because of many factors,” said Todd Walter, CEO, Red Door Spa Holdings. “The rate at which the hospitality industry, specially the five-star hotels are growing, an increasing demand for tourism, thousands of years of culture of well-being (Ayurveda), right demographics, younger population (highly educated and affluent)—all contributed to our decision.”

For its maiden foray outside the $13.5-billion North American spa market, Red Door is ready with a two-fold strategy. First, it will partner with a leading Indian hospitality chain. Second, it will also tie up with another partner for free-standing spas in all the major Indian cities, which may include high-end residential projects as well.

“In a decade, our goal is to be in every major city of the world. And in India, we should have two spas in Delhi and Mumbai by 2011,” said Mr Walter, who is on an India visit.

The value addition that Red Door brings in for a hospitality chain, feels Mr Walter, is an increasing local footfall because of the day spa concept. And along with its Mario Tricoci salon expertise, Red Door CEO is confident of opening an additional revenue door for the hotel it partners with.

In a bid to protect the brand name and luxury positioning, Red Door won’t go for either a licensing or a franchise model in India. “It has to be a JV or a model where we have a supervisory role for sure,” said Mr Walter. All the 31 spas that operate under the Red Door name and the 20 salons under Mario Tricoci are directly owned by the Red Door Spa Holding group so that they can ensure the luxury positioning of the brand.

A leader in the North American day spa market with a turnover of $160 million, Red Door Spa started working on its global expansion strategy after the onset of recession in America.

With over 100 years in the industry, Red Door Spa owns and operates 51 full-service salons and day spas across the United States. The privately-held company backed by North Castle Partners, a private-equity firm specializing in investments in the healthy living and aging sector, licenses trademarks from the publicly-traded fragrance and cosmetics company, Elizabeth Arden Inc, part of Unilever PLC and a $1.1-bn global brand.

Tags:Red Door, Todd Walter, Red Door Spa Holdings, Mario Tricoci, North Castle Partners, Elizabeth Arden, Day Spa, Indian Hospitality Chain, Salon Franchise, franchise model, licensing,

Source:24 AUG, 2010, 02.05AM IST, NANDINI RAGHAVENDRA,ET BUREAU

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Kurl-On Eyes 100 Cr, Franchisees 'Nests',Shop In Shops and Flagship Showrooms for its expansion

2010-08-23T23:42:00.000-07:00

After diversifying from sleep comfort to providing end-to-end home comfort solutions last year, Kurl-on Ltd will invest around Rs 150 crore in the next couple of years on setting up three mattresses manufacturing plants, one in Saudi Arabia and two more in India.

In Saudi Arabia, the Karnataka-based company, part of the Rs 2,000-crore Manipal Group, is looking to invest around Rs 60 crore, and expects to initially sell nearly 12,000 high-end mattresses a month, Mr T. Sudhakar Pai, Chairman, told Business Line here. Kurl-on is a well-known brand in West Asia.

The company's aggressive plans are aimed at giving its expansion activities a definitive direction. It is repositioning itself as a player in India's Rs 1 lakh crore home comfort industry. Thus, operating on a bigger canvass, it would manufacture a whole range of products for home comfort also.

Furniture business

Kurl-on is also focusing on furniture and furnishing. It has already signed a joint venture agreement with Mr Cesare Giacomuzzo for the manufacture of furniture and is looking for partners across India to manufacture other products.

To fund its expansion and diversification plans, which includes finding partners and franchisees across India for making various home comfort products, Kurl-on may also raise funds from the capital market next year. Based on the current market evaluation of Kurl-on at Rs 1,600 crore, the company could raise up to Rs 400 crore via an IPO and get listed on the bourses. “We have the shareholders' nod. And many a private equity (PE) player have also approached us,” he added.

India plans

In India, where the company currently has five manufacturing units, it will establish two more plants with an investment of around Rs 90 crore, to double its current production capacity.

One of these plants will be in the Jhagadia industrial hub, near Ankaleshwar, in Bharuch district of Gujarat, where the company will invest Rs 60 crore. Last week, the company was allotted 25 acres at Jhagadia for the purpose.

Mr Pai said Kurl-on is also planning to set up a new plant in the North-East, preferably in Assam, with an initial investment of Rs 30 crore. Kurl-on is expecting to increase its turnover from Rs 417 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 1,000 crore in the next two years. With this objective, he said it aims to expand its network to a total of 150 exclusive company-owned flagship showrooms, called “Kurl-on Nests”, on a partnership or franchisee basis, and also 500 other outlets on the shop-in-shop model in the next three years.

Tags:Kurl-on, kurl on, kurlon, kurl-on franchise, T. Sudhakar Pai, furniture franchise, cesare giacomuzzo, kurl-on nests, shop in shop franchise, furnishings franchise

Source:Virendra Pandit, Ahmedabad, The Hindu Business Line, August 2010.

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Hafele To Expand Via Franchise Stores In India

2010-08-23T03:56:00.000-07:00

Hafele, a provider of comprehensive hardware technology solutions, including furniture fittings and architectural hardware, has launched its concept studio in Delhi. The company has decided to take the franchise route in India (JB Gupta is its franchise partner in Delhi) and plans to open up to 20 stores every year. Hafele already runs 17 such stores.

Jurgen Wolf, MD, Hafele, says, “We plan to grow to a Rs.1,500-crore company in the next three years.”

The current fiscal (Hafele operates on a Jan-Dec year) should see the company closing at Rs.100 crore. “Even if we go slow and open only 20 stores a year, we are okay with it, because we are then confident of quality and service,” Wolf says.

For a big studio, the company looks for a space above 2,500 sq.ft, while the size of a small studio ranges from 500 to 1,500 sq ft.

Having made its foray into the Indian market around seven years ago through the multi-brand dealership route, Hafele has aggressive plans for the future. It is currently looking at partners who are traditionally from the hardware industry, as the company feels it will take lesser time and effort to train them.

What the company attempts to create is an ‘experience zone’, where the consumer, as well as the architect and the interior designer, can have a look and feel experience of what Hafele's hardware, and the technology behind it, can do to ease life, modernise homes and smarten up kitchen spaces.

The company plans to slowly introduce its entire portfolio of offerings, including the bathroom and appliances. Currently, lighting makes up about 65 per cent of Hafele's turnover.

Realising that DIY (do it yourself) is not a big market in India, Hafele is opening up training centres in various cities to train consumers, as well as carpenters and architects, on the correct use of products.

Hafele also has three levels of certification and even recommends people who have been trained in installation, though Wolf proudly declares that the company's devices are “so simple and well thought out that even a 10-year-old can read the manual and install the fixtures”.

Tags:Hafele,hardware store franchise, fittings franchise, Jurgen Wolf, furniture franchise, Kitchen Franchise, lighting franchise, JB Gupta, interior franchise, studio franchise

Source:India Retailing Bureau, 20 Aug 2010

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

India Franchising Market Poised To Be A Major Job Spinner

2010-08-23T02:03:00.000-07:00

The country's franchising market is poised to grow at 35 per cent annually and become a major job spinner in the coming years, as firms look to tap the huge demand present in smaller cities and rural markets, say experts.

Companies are eager to explore opportunities in the tier II and III cities, as well as rural markets, as metros and tier I cities are close to saturation in terms of growth, experts said.

"There is excitement in the franchisee industry as from a mere 300 franchisers in 2005, the number has touched 1,150 in 2010. The market is growing at 32-35 per cent year-on-year," HR consulting firm Planman HR Director & Managing Partner Deepak Kaistha told PTI.

"With opening of new outlets and branches of brands, there will be a high requirement for skilled and unskilled manpower.

Tags:Planman, Deepak Kaistha, Franchise Jobs, Franchise HR, franchising jobs, franchise vacanies, franchise manager vacancy, franchise posts, franchise careers,

Source:Press Trust of India / New Delhi August 22, 2010, 13:28 IST

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

HTC To Expand Footprint In India Through Large Franchise Retail Chain Stores

2010-08-23T01:53:00.000-07:00

HTC has announced that its plans to strengthen and expand its Indian operations in order to support future growth in the Indian smartphone market. As part of its efforts, HTC will be working with its national fulfillment distribution partner, Brightpoint India and new dedicated distribution partner for modern trade, Ingram Micro to increase its efforts in large franchise retail chain stores. HTC will focus on intensifying retail efforts across national, regional and local tiers, and also developing a comprehensive user experience for Indian modern trade channels.

"India's unique geography, culture and consumer culture create a complex retail environment that requires a deep understanding of local retailers and consumer needs," said Jack Tong, vice president, HTC Asia Pacific. "HTC is focusing on offering customers a better retail experience that fully represents what the HTC brand stands for."

HTC will also extend its reach into the modern trade segment, while continuing to forge strong ties with regional distributors and its Preferred Authorized Retailers (PAR). It will also expand its PAR network by offering a greater variety of retail branding resources. In addition, more intensive product and sales training will be offered to all HTC retailers, ambassadors and in-store retail staff.

As part of its growth plans, HTC intends to expand its distributor network at both the regional and local level. It plans to grow this network from the current 25 to 50 Tier 2 cities, and enlarge its footprint to a total of 100 Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities by July 2011. HTC will also provide greater marketing and logistics assistance to all distributors as it builds a strong infrastructure to support the expected growth in the India smartphone market.

"We are taking the necessary steps to build a stronger, wider and more stable national infrastructure that will better support our retailers from the national through to the local level," said Ajay Sharma, Country Manager, HTC India. "This will enable HTC to deliver a consistent branding experience and enhancement of our retail capabilities."

Future potential of the Indian smartphone market

According to Gartner, smartphone sales in India made up 5.2 percent of total device sales in the first quarter of 2010, and Gartner expects this share to increase to 18 percent in 2014. In addition, smartphone sales to end users accounted for 19 percent of worldwide mobile device sales in Q2 2010, an increase of 50.5 percent from the second quarter of 2009. HTC has also entered the list of top 10 worldwide mobile phone manufacturers for the first time according to Gartner's latest report.

"The global smartphone market is poised for tremendous growth over the next three years, and HTC's focus on innovation and listening to the customer places us squarely at the forefront of that evolution." said Tong.

Tags:HTC, Telecom Franchise, Brightpoint India, Ingram Micro, Jack Tong, Ajay Sharma, HTC India, HTC Franchise, Electronics Franchise, phone store franchise.

Source:Cellular News/19 Aug 2010.

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Europa Boutique Begins Its First South India Franchise Tile Store In Coimbatore

2010-08-21T04:33:00.000-07:00

Orient Ceramics & Industries Limited inaugurates "Europa- Boutique" Company's first store in South India

Orient Ceramics & Industries Ltd. (OCIL), one of the largest manufacturers of Non-Vitrified, Vitrified, Ultra Vitrified and 3rd Fired Decorative Tiles for walls, floors & facades and the pioneers in floor and wall solutions brings the premium range of 'Europa' tiles to the Southern region with the opening of its new franchise store today. The new store is the company's first major venture in the region and is dedicated to providing consumers an unparalleled selection of a world-class product, focused on showcasing the beauty and value found in ceramic tiles.

The strategically located store spread over 3000 sq ft, is one of the biggest stores in the region and will enable customers to touch, feel and experience the entire product portfolio. Mr. Sanjay Monga (Vice president - Sales & Marketing) inaugurated the first franchisee of Orient Ceramics and Industries Limited in South India.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Sanjay Monga, Vice president Sales and Marketing OCIL said, "It has been our constant endeavor to provide customers with unique tile designs with an unmatched buying experience. We plan to carve a segment for ourselves in this space. We believe in providing quality products and we are upbeat about the future growth trends in the ceramic tile industry in this region The "Europa - Boutique" is the third of newly designed franchisee outlets that has opened after successful launch of the same in Rudrapur in Uttarakhand and in Guwahati in Assam. We intend to open 25 such outlets across major markets in other regions",

"While Coimbatore is one of the largest district and one of the most industrialized city of Tamilnadu has outpaced the growth in the region. High growth potential, strong growth of the textile and engineering sectors in recent years coupled with an IT boom has resulted in a flurry of construction activities in and around the region. Thus, as the city expands - with a mix of commercial, residential and industrial activities in all areas. We are confident that this growth will also help us to have good footsteps in the growing ceramics market in the region, I am confident that that we shall be getting the same response and enthusiasm of the people of the region towards our offerings that we have received in other parts of the country" added Mr. Monga.

The tiles designed by the only European in-house designer in the country Ms. Maria Jose Castillo, will give the consumers a wide range and unmatched designs to choose amongst the variety of 'Europa' tiles for Wall & Floor.

At "Europa - Boutique", both trade and retail customers can enjoy the very best value with Europa's Price Promise. The shopping is easy with ample of parking space, in-store lifestyle displays and helpful and knowledgeable staff.

Editor's synopsis - Company's first franchisee showroom in South India in Coimbatore after successful launch in Rudrapur in Uttarakhand and Guwahati in Assam - OCIL plans to open 25 such stores in next one year - OCIL manufactures one of the widest range of Non-Vitrified, Vitrified, Ultra Vitrified and 3rd Fired Decorative Tiles for walls, floors & facades - OCIL has a base of over 4000 dealers and sub-dealers across the country - Only tile manufacturer to have an exclusive European Product & Solution Designer as part of our product development team - Ms. Maria Jose Castillo
Notes to Editor

About Orient Ceramics & Industries Ltd

Orient Ceramics & Industries Ltd (OCIL) pioneers in manufacturing ultra vitrified tiles in India was formed in 1977 as a public limited company and has been at the forefront of innovation in home décor ever since. The company is accredited with ISO 9001:2000, ISO 14001 and ISO 18001 certifications for quality control management systems. Having a base of more than 1500 retail outlets and more than 4000 secondary retailers spread all over the country and also a wide customer base ranging from Middle East to Europe.

Source:New Delhi, Delhi, August 12, 2010 /India PRwire/

Tags:Europa Boutique Franchise, Orient Ceramics and Tiles, Coimbatore Franchise, New Franchise Coimbatore, New Business Coimbatore, construction franchise,tiles franchise, south india franchise,

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Cox And Kings Franchise Model Aims at Penetrating India Travel Market.

2010-08-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

Cox & Kings (India) Limited is in the process of increasing its presence across the country through increasing its franchise network by focusing on Tier Two and Tier Three cities such as Ambala, Kurukshetra and Tirupati. It currently has 80 franchise partners across the country and aims to increase this network to 150 partners by March 2011.

Speaking with TravelBiz Monitor Karan Anand, Head- Relationships and Supplier Management, Cox & Kings (India) Ltd said, “The franchise model is an easier growth route as it does not incur any direct investment from the company while expanding its presence in the market. We regularly receive queries from young entrepreneurs wanting to associate with our network.”

Furthermore, the company also assists students travelling overseas for higher studies and specialised courses by providing them information on travel related products like foreign currency bank notes, foreign currency demand drafts, traveller’s checks, air tickets and TravelTag baggage tracking device and student insurance.

Tags:Cox and Kings, Travel Franchise,Franchise Partners, Franchise Network, franchise model, travel abroad franchise, Karan Anand, Tours Franchise, Travel Agent Franchise, Travel Packages Franchise

Source:Dheera Majumder,Mumbai,Travel Biz Monitor
This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Olive and Pine Modular Kitchen Franchise Opportunity

2010-08-19T04:50:00.000-07:00

Bengaluru, Karnataka, August 13, 2010-- "Olive & Pine has set new benchmarks in the modular furniture domain and we are delighted to launch our latest series of customized modular kitchens - CraftsMaid here in Bangalore. The accelerated growth of the industry and the increasing global awareness of consumers in India, gives us incredible opportunity to provide expertise and value to our customers" said Mr. Derick Px, CEO, & Chief Architect, Olive & Pine.

"Culinary art has so much to it today and mere cooking is a passé. Now, it is about where you cook and kitchen aesthetics is the term you can define the phenomenon as Olive & Pine offers a comprehensive choice of materials, styles, designs, accessories, and combinations, which helps in making every kitchen unique and one of its kind." He further emphasized.

The CraftsMaid series is designed and assembled in contemporary style with practical accessories and will be retailed at Rs.1,25,000 upwards for a modular kitchen. An archetypal Olive & Pine modular kitchen is slated to be a perfect blend of expertise, experience, and extensive engineering know-how. The USP of the series being that CraftsMaid kitchens have balanced chromatic effects which adds to the aesthetics and functional demands of new-age realm of kitchens.

With the objective of expanding its presence in South India, Olive & Pine plans to enter the Hyderabad and Chennai markets through exclusive franchisee networks. The brand is seeking franchisees to partners its initiative in the metros.

Notes to Editor

About Olive & Pine

Established in the year 1999, Olive & Pine is one of the leading firms in modular furniture industry. The company is a complete end-to-end kitchen solution firm with a beautiful ambience and unique modular layout. The products are divided into three main categories - Modular Kitchens, Wardrobes and Home Furniture. The brand has an enviable reputation, as designers, manufacturers and retailers with a strong presence in spaces of Modular Kitchens, Wardrobes and Home Furniture.

The key highlights: Olive & Pine is a professional setup, providing total kitchen solutions from products to services, warrantee, branded appliances, after-sales service, designed on a special software and tailor-made to perfectly fit every kitchen floor plan under one roof. They also deal in turnkey projects for some of the India's leading corporate and developers.

Tags:Olive and Pine,Modular Furniture Franchise, Kitchen Franchise, Modular Kitchen Franchise, Derick Px, Craftsmaid, franchisee network,

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Alternative Business Opportunities For India Entrepreneurs

2010-08-19T04:47:00.000-07:00

As concoctions go, there's no simulating the high that comes from blending business with pleasure. For some entrepreneurs in the travel industry, these two components come together in an enviable mix. Driven either by wanderlust, dormant passion or plain opportunity, these people have found ingenious ways to tap the market and create job opportunities.

It helps that the growing breed of travel junkies has spawned a hundred billion dollar industry across the world. In fact, the tourism sector accounted for 9.2% of the world GDP and provided 235 million jobs, or 8% of the total employment worldwide, according to the World Economic Forum's report on Travel and Tourism Competitiveness, released in 2009. Though the hospitality sector suffered a jolt due to the global downturn, it has picked up pace once again. According to the World Tourism Organisation, international arrivals across the globe are expected to grow annually at 4.1% and increase from the current 1 billion to 1.6 billion by 2020.

In tandem with the growing fervor for travel, Indian entrepreneurs are devising unique ways to lure tourists. Be it Suchna and Yogesh Shah, who started the Backpacker Company, Atul Khekh-ade, who charters planes, or Inir Pinheiro and Abhijeet Kavthekar, who are making the most of rural tourism, this enterprising class of professionals is set to redefine the contours of tourism in the country.

Travelling Light For Mumbai-based Suchna and Yogesh, setting up the Backpacker Company seemed a natural offshoot of their intense love for travelling to off-beat destinations. "We preferred to travel independently rather than take rigid group tours, and soon found ourselves bombarded with queries from friends regarding these trips. When we realised that people were willing to pay for good advice, we set up the company in 2006," says Yogesh. "The uniqueness of our venture is that people can enjoy a 'pay-as-you-go plan', where the food and accommodation are not restricted and they can change their itineraries midway, if they want to," he adds.

As most adventurous travellers are young and budgetconscious, the Shahs focus on hostels, bed-and-breakfasts, camping grounds and homestays. Also, the flexible backpacking plans allow clients to take off alone without having to pay extra, a boon in an industry that charges solo travellers a supplement fee. "It also helps that Suchna can vouch for the hygiene and safety of every place we propose.

So women travellers trust our recommendations," says Yogesh. The proof of their success is the 40% annual growth registered by the company since its launch. But it wasn't always easy for the Shahs. In the first year, it was tough to get the business going, especially as finance was a constraint. There wasn't enough money for marketing and advertising, so the couple relied on word-of-mouth publicity and free social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. However, in the past four years, the company has acquired more than 1,000 members. "We are considering venture capital but such an arrangement is like a marriage. You need the right partner, who understands your vision and supports your decisions," adds Yogesh.

The Shahs not only plan to expand their operations to Bengaluru, Pune and Delhi soon, but have also decided to branch out. Recently, the couple has launched Away and Beyond, a new venture to cater to those who like to rough it out in luxury. Flying High While the prospect of organising tours has pulled in a fair share of entrepreneurs, other areas in the sector have drawn an equally feisty bunch of players. Take Atul Khekhade. For someone who had nursed an entrepreneurial temper ever since he started his first company at 19, flying high was a given. Only, Khekhade was forced into a circuitous route before launching Airnetz Aviation in 2007.

While studying for his engineering degree, he started a software company, Pyxoft Infotech, in 2000, with a couple of friends. "We did everything from making softwares to hardware servicing and designing Websites," says Khekhade. However, the business didn't take off and the founders decided to split. In 2003, Khekhade joined Oracle, but after an year, decided to change course again. He plunged into executive education, working with companies in the US. It was during his travels in the US that Khekhade was taken in by the infrastructure, especially in the aviation sector. It made him wonder if there was need for better aviation and airport facilities in India. He identified a location within 80 km of Mumbai, which could be developed as a general aviation/cargo airport and could also be used for medical emergencies. "I was wary after my first start-up, so decided to ensure that the business would pay and then set it up," says Khekhade. He negotiated with companies, such as the Jain group and Religare, which owned airplanes, and worked out a schedule to lease them.

In September 2007, he set up Airnetz Aviation with Rs 5 lakh. The cost of an air taxi service or chartering a helicopter starts at Rs 50,000 an hour. Khekhade's instinct about the lacuna paid off as the company registered a turnover of Rs 3 crore in 2009-10. Tapping the Roots Much like Khekhade, toeing the line doesn't come easily to Inir Pinheiro. So, after earning his post-graduate degree in rural management from XIM Bhubhaneswar, he decided to work for Greenpeace.

Even as he was tinkering with the idea of rural tourism, he met Abhijeet Kavthekar, who worked at the Watershed Organisation Trust. "Lack of opportunities in rural India has made it a hotbed for illegal activities. I wanted to leverage the potential in villages and tourism seemed an ideal way to do it," he says. So, in 2006, he and Kavthekar laid the foundation for Grassroutes. "For this venture, the trust supplied me with support and funding of Rs 20 lakh," says Pinheiro. A big advantage of the hospitality sector is that it does not necessarily require highly skilled workers. It's a benefit that Pinheiro and Kavthekar have manipulated to better the lot of villagers in Maharashtra. The first village they set foot in was Purushwadi, a five-hour drive from Mumbai. "The villagers were apprehensive about what people would do if they stayed there and were flabbergasted at the idea of asking the guests to pay for food. We also needed to shore up the facilities in the village," says Kavthekar.

They first experimented with dummy tourists to find if the villagers could cope with their needs. "I then began to tap my network of alumni and called up people in corporates randomly. Of the 30 calls I would make, barely four would respond," says Pinheiro. However, the idea had its appeal and began to take quick root. In 2009-10, Grassroutes hosted 350 tourists and the founders plan to rope in six more villages this year. Hearth Benefits Extreme entrepreneurship, however, is not for everybody.

If you're wary of losing money in a business, you can go the franchise way, as did the Nayars. The much publicised Incredible India campaign prompted R.K. Nayar, a retired army officer, to turn his house at Kailash Colony, Delhi, into a bed-and-breakfast. "I got government approval in January 2008, but at my age I wasn't keen to do any running around for marketing."

When he heard that the Mahindra group was planning to branch out into homestays, he approached the company in October 2008, and it agreed to take on marketing and booking. "It's the best of both worlds, as we have the support and can still take independent decisions on day-to-day running of the business. Till date, our rooms have been occupied for about 600 days," says Nayar. Obstacles and Opportunities Not everybody has the Nayars' luck. There are several challenges that entrepreneurs have to tackle, the biggest being tourist satisfaction. "A big impediment is language, especially for foreign tourists," says Pinheiro.

There's also the problem of meeting international standards. Says Vimla Dorairaju, business head, Mahindra Homestays: "It's not easy to convert your house into a homestay. There are stringent requirements. We visit 10-15 homes before finally zooming in on one." Overcoming such obstacles can often lead to the discovery of new opportunities. "There are nearly 400 air strips in India, but facilities at most are below par. Some of these, such as the one in Pune, aren't even commercially owned and fall under the jurisdiction of the Indian Air Force.

So there's a lot of potential in this area," says Khekhade, who plans to focus on airport development. He has begun work on a blueprint to start operations in Surat, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Assam. There are many more Khekhades and Pinheiros waiting to devise new tourist lures and tap travel opportunities. In the process, they are creating more employment avenues, business for themselves, and pleasure for tourists. It's a blend that serves to please all.

Tags:Suchna Shah, Yogesh Shah, Backpacker Company, Atul Khekhade, Inir Pinheiro, Abhijeet Kavthekar,Away and Beyond,, airnetz aviation, grass routes,mahindra homestays,Alternative Business, new business

Source:Money Today, Namrata Dadwal, Aug 16, 2010
This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Blues Clothing Company To Expand Premium International Retail Clothing Franchise Brands In India

2010-08-17T04:50:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI,: Three high-end fashion brands -- Tween, Damat and ADV -- from the Turkish Orka Group are set to enter India by October this year, to cash in on the expanding luxury space in the country.

Delhi-based Blues Clothing company has tied up with the Orka Group, that has presence in over 35 countries worldwide with nearly 400 sales points, as franchise to bring the three apparel and accessories brands.

"We are bringing these Turkish brands in India and will set up multi-brand and standalone stores by October," Blues Clothing Company Executive Director Abhay Gupta said.

Blues Clothing Company (BCC) currently is the exclusive franchisee for a host of other luxury brands, including Italy's leading names -- Versace Collection, Corneliani, Cadini, VJC and Gianni Versace.

The Delhi-based firm will be launching the menswear range from the three Turkish brands, with a price range of Rs 5,000 and Rs 20,000.

According to industry observers, the current economic scenario in India offers good potential for international high-end brands to make a foray here.

"Now sentiments are positive and there is willingness to spend on high-end luxury products. If the current economic conditions remain the same in India, luxury retail will surely kick off here," Retailers Association of India, CEO Kumar Rajagopalan said.

As per industry estimates, the super-premium fashion market in India is valued at over Rs 1,500 crore and is pegged to touch over Rs 5,000 crore by 2013.

Besides introducing the new labels, BCC will also increase the total number of stores for the various brands that it retails in India.

"The plan is to open around 25 new stores across brands by October this year, these will be a mix of both multi-brand outlets and standalone stores," Gupta said.

The total investment will be around Rs 50 crore, he said, adding it would be funded through a mix of debt and internal accruals.

Gupta said currently BCC has a total turnover of Rs 100 crore and is expected to be Rs 200 crore by the next year.

As a part of the expansion plan, BCC will open new Versace, Cadini and Corneliani stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Source:15 AUG, 2010, 10.45AM IST,PTI

Tags:ween, Damat, Adv, Orka Group, Blues Clothing Company, Abhay Gupta, BCC, Versace Collection, Corneliani, Cadini, VJC, Gianni Versace, Kumar Rajagopalan, RAI, Premium Retail Stores,

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Edible Arrangements Signs Master Franchise For India

2010-08-17T04:40:00.000-07:00

WALLINGFORD, CT -- (Marketwire) -- 08/16/10 -- Edible Arrangements, the pioneer and leader in hand-sculpted, fresh-fruit arrangements, announced today the signing of a Master Franchisee agreement with Hiten Bajaj for the development of 20 units throughout the Republic of India over the next four years. The first location is expected to open by the end of the year in Mumbai. With this agreement, Edible Arrangements is now available to consumers in 10 countries outside the United States and Puerto Rico.

Bajaj studied at the American University in Dubai and secured his bachelor's degree in marketing and business administration from Southern New Hampshire University, Boston. Four years ago he launched Mosaic Live Communications, an event management company in Dubai that specializes in high-profile corporate affairs and product launches.

"We are very excited to welcome Hiten into our system and introduce Edible Arrangements to consumers in India," said Tariq Farid, CEO and Founder, Edible Arrangements, Inc. "As the founder of a prestigious event company, Hiten is well versed in client service and hospitality, making him an ideal brand ambassador and we wish him the best of luck with the opening of his first store later this year."

Currently, Edible Arrangements has over 970 locations with the goal to reach 1,000 units by the end of 2010. The company has experienced strong growth in 2009 with the opening of 74 new stores and franchise agreements for more than 85 locations in the U.S. and internationally.

As part of its aggressive growth strategy, Edible Arrangements is seeking to add several new development agreements in the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and other areas of the United States, while expanding its presence to Japan, South Korea, Jordan, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, South Africa, Singapore and Egypt. In addition to finding qualified new franchisees, the company's growth strategy includes continuing to grow its existing franchise base into enterprise multi-unit operators.

"Edible Arrangements is an exceptionally unique concept that will be well received during the continuous celebrations and ceremonies that occur year-round in India," said Hiten Bajaj. "Additionally, there has been a recent shift in consumer behavior with many opting for healthy eating and lifestyles making Edible Arrangements a perfect fit for a country like India where there is no product like this."

Tariq Farid, the recipient of two Entrepreneur of the Year awards in 2009 from the International Franchise Association and Ernst & Young in Metro New York, developed and launched Edible Arrangements in 1999 in East Haven, CT, after many years in the floral industry. He learned early that corporate support can make the difference between a struggling or thriving franchise. It is for this reason that Edible Arrangements offers its franchisees comprehensive corporate and onsite level training, unparalleled technology, national brand recognition and extensive support.

Since its inception, Edible Arrangements has earned countless accolades from the industry, including its ranking as first in its category by Entrepreneur Magazine's Annual "Franchise 500" Ranking for the past five consecutive years and the winner of the ICSC's 2010 Hot Retailer Award. In addition, the company has also ranked for six consecutive years in Inc. Magazine's top 5,000 fastest growing privately-held companies.

Individuals seeking to own and operate an individual Edible Arrangements franchise should posses a minimum liquidity of $60,000 and the ability to invest approximately $147,000 - $261,000. Multi-unit store development plans, international master franchisee licenses and financing options are also available for qualified applicants.

About Edible Arrangements
Edible Arrangements International, Inc. is the leading purveyor of delicious, high quality, artistically designed, fresh fruit arrangements that are practical and healthy gifts. Founded in 1999 in East Haven, CT. by Tariq Farid, Edible Arrangements has been ranked first in its category by Entrepreneur Magazine's Annual "Franchise 500" Ranking for the past five consecutive years. With over 900 locations operating or opening soon worldwide, Edible Arrangements is rapidly expanding across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Italy, Turkey and Hong Kong.

Tags:Edible Arrangements, Hiten Bajaj, Mosaic Live Communications, Tariq Farid, international franchise association, international master franchisee licenses, Franchise Financing,

Source: Marketwire, Aug. 16, 2010 10:00 AM

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Manchester United Cafes To Open 10 more cafe's across India.

2010-08-17T04:02:00.000-07:00

There are three Manchester United Cafés and bars presently, operational in India — in Mulund and the Palladium Mall in Mumbai, and in Gurgoan. Following the rousing reception to the brand, the franchise plans to open 10 more cafes across the country, in Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Goa, Pune and Chandigarh.

“We’re also looking to branch out in the western suburbs, and are targetting Andheri Link Road and Juhu. There are also plans for a slightly smaller outlet in South Mumbai for the townies and corporate crowd,” informs Gaurav Goenka, director, Mirah Group.

After a mega promotional plan woven around the FIFA World Cup last month, Goenka is now looking to cash in on the annual English Premier League. “The crowd-pulling schemes will depend on the importance of the matches being played that day. Once all 10 outlets are operational, we will also think of flying down some of the ace footballers as guests,” says Goenka.

Expansion plans are in place for the thali joint Rajdhani as well, now that Mirah Group has acquired a 100 per cent stake in the venture. The flagship brand should open in all the major cities, including Delhi, Chennai, Bhopal, Nasik and Allahabad. “We are also looking at new outlets in Vashi, Thane, Bandra and Juhu that should flag off in the next four-six months. And after Oman and Dubai, we are exploring Singapore, Hong Kong and London as future venues.

We are getting enquires from the US,” he says. Geonka does not intend to incorporate any major changes in the menu but says it will be more elaborate, the ambience will be more elegant and service standards will be upped. “We are also thinking of having regular festivals like a Sindhi or a Maharashtrian food fest, when we will deviate from our regular Gujarati-Rajasthani cuisines,” points out Geonka.

His Bandra-based Italian restaurant, Café Mangii, is also branching out in Powai and Andheri, and after Goa, will be travelling to Pune, Bangalore and Delhi. These cities are also on the radar for Falafels that is currently operating only out of Mumbai.

New food court?
The food court brand Palette, which has just opened in Shird, Vapi and Pune, could be entering the city next. “We are also looking at Mumbai but the concept of serving different cuisines under one roof works best in tier-two cities,” explains Goenka.

Novelle, that caters to select clients like Infosys in Mysore, the Aditya Birla Hospital and the Malabar Hill Club in Mumbai, is also growing. “We could start serving hygienic, high on nutrition meals to Infosys in Banglaore next. And Billabong High School, whose Thane branch we cater to presently, could use our services for its other branches too,” says Goenka, adding that talks are on with other international brands but it’s too early to divulge details.

Tags:Manchester United Cafe Franchise, Man U Franchise, Gaurav Goenka, Mirah Group,Rajdhani Franchise, Cafe Mangii, Palette, Novelle, Rajdhani Thali Franchise, Thali Franchise.

Source:Roshmila Bhattacharya, Hindustan Times,Mumbai, August 09, 2010

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Oceanic Consultants, BPO Intelligence and Object Next Software Makes OCA Group a 440 Cr Business House

2010-08-17T03:53:00.000-07:00

CHANDIGARH: He used to sell decorative candles to the newly-wed couples along the roadside in Chandigarh. "I was never interested in studies, and I always wanted to do something of my own," says Naresh Gulati, who is now the owner of Rs 440-crore Oceanic Consultants Australia Group (OCA Group).

From selling candles to wholesale cloth trading, to cosmetics wholesale and teaching at Aptech Computers to running a computer centre, the 39-year-old tried his hands at many things before homing in on overseas education consultancy business.

The journey has not been easy for Mr Gulati who flunked in class 10 and performed miserably in college. But he is now a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship in leading Australian universities.

Armed with a diploma in electronic data processing, Mr Gulati went to RMIT, Melbourne, in 1995 for a post-graduate course in information systems. However, destiny had scripted a different chapter for him.

"When I reached there, I realised that I had been duped. I was promised a job in Melbourne by my immigration consultant, and that would have helped me clear the loan that I took for going overseas," recalls Mr Gulati. For the next six months, Mr Gulati came in touch with several students who had met the same fate. And this made him think about a fantastic business opportunity-immigration consultancy business.

Mr Gulati came back to Chandigarh in 1996 and started Oceanic Consultants. "Chandigarh had over 110 such agencies at that time, and I was discouraged by many not to venture into this business, says Mr Gulati. "There was a time when I had to choose between two options-paying the rent or using that money for advertising. I chose the latter and the risk paid off,".

In three years, Oceanic Consultants had opened branches in Ludhiana, Patiala, Jallandhar and Amritsar. However, the franchise model was not sustainable as quality was getting affected and people were not interested in investing money. Moreover, established players such as Study Overseas and IBP Education created a dent in whatever little marketing that Oceanic did.

Oceanic Consultants then zeroed in on company-owned office model. And the decision paid off. Oceanic now has 20 offices across India and plans to take the count to 60 by 2013.

"We opened our Australia office a decade back and the UK office last year. By the end of this year, we will be present in US and Canada. Punjab offices have now started to become profitable, while others will soon follow suit," says Mr Gulati.

He saw another opportunity in printing and distribution segments of universities. "In 2005, we developed a new technology enabling online orders of prospectus printing, postage and tracking from India to anywhere in the world. This outsourcing facility has helped universities save 25-65% of their profits even when our investment in starting BPO Intelligence was A$ 1,000," adds Mr Gulati.

In five years, BPO Intelligence is the leading company in Australia with 29 of the 39 universities using its services. Seven of the eight universities in New Zealand and eight clients in the UK also use these services.

The next year, another idea on software solutions for the education industry lead to formation of Object Next Software with an investment of A$ 5 million. In 2007, after a corporate restructuring, the OCA Group became the parent company of Oceanic Consultants, BPO Intelligence and Object Next, based out of Australia. The companies have been winning accolades from Australian Business Awards every year since 2008.

This year, Oceanic Consultants won the Australian Business Award for best enterprise in personal services industry. While Object Next won the award for best new product, BPO Intelligence won the award in two categories - product value and product excellence.

The Fairfax Media Group's Business Review Weekly ranked BPO Intelligence as the 12th fastest growing company in Australia this year, up from 93rd in 2008. Today, it contributes to more than 30-40% of the group's total revenue of $A 20 million. To make the Oceanic Consultants meaner and leaner, Mr Gulati brought in PriceWaterhouseCoopers last year to do a performance management of the entire system, and at the same time added a virtual private network connecting all its offices across different countries.

Mr Gulati feels that India will fuel the growth in overseas education even when the Indian government is rooting for foreign universities to come and set up shop.

"The demand for quality education and a global qualification is high in India. We plan to capitalise on this demand and become a global player, enabling admissions from any place to any place in the world. We're investing heavily into technology, which would allow us to hold global webinars providing virtual access to everyone," adds Mr Gulati.

Tags:Naresh Gulati, Oceanic Consultants, OCA Group, Overseas Education Franchise, Study Abroad Franchise, Immigration Franchise, immigration consultancy business, BPO Intelligence, Object Next

Source:11 AUG, 2010, 10.12PM IST, GULVEEN AULAKH,ET BUREAU,
This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

India Franchise Companies and Top Brands waking up to entrepreneurs in Tier II, III cities.

2010-08-13T05:11:00.000-07:00

AHMEDABAD: A small town in Parbhani, around 400 km from the financial hub of Mumbai, has of late woken up to the concept of sending their toddlers to a branded pre-school. Never before a parent of the town actually dressed up his child in neat uniform for something that seemed essentially a plaything.

For EuroKids International Ltd, however, it was about spotting a local entrepreneur to lap up its flagship pre-school brand EuroKid as its new franchisee. With the untapped tier II and III cities showing a phenomenal 40-45% growth in the $16 billion Indian franchising industry, the decision to go to Parbhani was obvious.

Not just education service providers, even retailers, travel operators and FMCG companies are thronging lesser known towns and cities to find franchisees in local entrepreneurs. “The Indian market that has never witnessed such excitement in the franchise industry,” notes Ritu Marya, the director of Franchise India. From 300 franchisers in 2005, the numbers doubled in 2008 while standing at 1,150 in 2010, she observes. “With understanding of the franchise business, companies are eager to explore opportunities in the market that is growing at 32-35% YoY.

However, with metros and tier I cities close to saturation in terms of growth of brands through the franchise model, brands are looking at virgin markets. So be it tier II or III cities or rural India, which contribute about 25% and 5% respectively to the franchise turnover basket, brands are expected to penetrate those markets more aggressively than ever before in next five years time,” she adds. That explains presence of EuroKids’ franchisee in markets like Akot, Angangaon (both Maharashtra), Navsari and Nadiad (Gujarat) or kitchenware retailer Prestige’s franchisee in Rajapalyam (TN) and Haldia (WB) and AMUL’s in almost every nook and corner of its home state Gujarat and elsewhere.

Says KG George, VP (retail), TTK Prestige Ltd: “Our presence in 160 towns through 246 franchisees have paid off very well. In fact, in certain cases, like the outlet in Rajapalyam, the turnover (Rs 40 lakh per month) surpasses the cumulative turnover of Prestige from multi-branded outlets. Now, we are keen to scale our number by 50 additional franchisees to achieve a 13% growth this fiscal and would essentially go to smaller towns where we are not represented well.” Big brands eager to set shop in these new markets essentially assess the disposable income of the consumers. “Brands look for a market where an average income of a family would be Rs 8-10 lakh per annum. Growth in infrastructure in those pockets, low rentals and high disposable incomes have given a thrust to this process,” Marya adds.

For Debashis Chattopadhayay, who has been retailing everything from buttermilk satches to ice-creams and pizzas under the AMUL brand, saying no to eager franchise takers has understandably been a daunting task.

The deputy Manager (retail) at Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd that markets AMUL, who seeks to take the number of franchised outlets from current 5,000 to 10,000 by 2012, has experienced the brand-pull of AMUL. “We aspire to grow in smaller markets with partners who are passionate about the business and not just thinking of quick financial returns,” he says.

Franchising essentially needs a long-term approach and has to be looked at in terms of 5-10 years period. Considering it is an alternative to people, time and money, one has to be very sure about the model.Education topping the charts of the most franchised business in India (28%), followed by apparel retailing, companies playing in those sectors have adopted franchise route as their expansion strategies.

Uttam Saklani (area manager-West), EuroKids, could not agree less. Inching closer to take its tally of branded pre-schools to more than 900 in the current fiscal, the company is very sure about the potential growth markets. “With nearly 70% of our target group residing in the smaller towns and cities, we are aggressive about entering those markets through the franchise route,” he says adding that 40% of such franchised pre-schools are in smaller markets.

Tags:franchise model, franchise in tier II cities, franchise turnover, franchise penetration, franchise small towns, franchise smaller cities, franchising in small cities, franchise small markets

Source:12 Aug 2010, 1502 hrs IST,Shramana Ganguly Mehta,ET Bureau.

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Shriram Finance Opens Its Priveleged Franchise at Vadodara

2010-08-13T04:54:00.000-07:00

Mumbai, Maharashtra, August 13, 2010: Shriram Transport Finance Co. Ltd (STFC), the largest asset financing NBFC, today, announced the launch of Privileged Franchise at Vadodara, Gujarat. The novel endeavor will cater to STFC's extended network of niche customers.

Mr. U. G. Revankar, Dy. Managing Director, Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd. inaugurated the Privileged Frachise at Trident Complex, Race Course Circle, Vadodara. The Privileged Franchise will be at par with any other Shriram branches.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Privileged Franchise, Mr. U. G. Revankar, Dy. Managing Director, STFC, said," I am delighted to inaugurate our Privileged Franchise in Vadodara which is a rapidly growing and strategic market for us. The pre-owned car market in Vadodara is growing at a rapid rate and has immense scope for growth."

"We are honored to be associated with Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd. and intend to add sustainable, long-term value to the company and the customers" added, Mr. Ashok Jain of Privileged Franchise.

Shriram Transport Finance Company Limited is the flagship company of the Shriram group which has significant presence in Consumer Finance, Life Insurance, General Insurance, Stock Broking, and Distribution businesses. Incorporated in 1979, Shriram Transport is today the largest asset financing NBFC in the country and holistic finance provider for the commercial vehicle industry and seeks to partner small truck owners for every possible need related to their assets. It has PAN India presence with 482 branch offices. Based at Mumbai, it manages assets over Rs 30,000 crores and has a customer base exceeding 7,00,000.

Tags:Finance Franchise, Financing Franchise, Shriram Franchise, Priveleged Franchise, Vadodara Franchise, Transport Franchise, loan franchise, shriram transport finance company

Source:India PRwire

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Franchising Association Of India To Hold Its Annual Conclave at IRF On 28 SEP 2010

2010-08-13T04:23:00.000-07:00

Franchising Association of India (FAI) is holding its annual conclave at the IRF on 28th September 2010. The conclave will see some of the most successful franchisors and franchisees from India and overseas deliberating on the theme ’Franchising – The Future Of Retailing In India’.

Mr C Y Pal Chairman mentioned, "with the increasing spirit of enterprise in the retail sector, the franchising format is finding large and growing presence in hundreds of malls and otherwise all around the country. I believe that IRF 2010 will provide an excellent forum for debating the issues involved for managing orderly growth and for evolving the directional steps that the franchising industry should work towards in the coming years."

The backdrop of the event will revolve around how franchising as a business model has witnessed rapid growth in recent years, along with emergence of many modern retail formats, there is lot more that remains to be done to steer orderly growth of franchising to ensure ongoing successes in this domain and to minimise failures. Simply lobbying with the Government to bring in more regulation is not the right answer to the issues involved. Bringing in transparency and professionalism in Franchisor-Franchisee business relationships based on international best practices is going to be the major challenge.

The Discussion points being:

The current status: The number of franchising systems in the country and projected growth in the coming years.

Issues based on current experience.

Support systems required for orderly growth of the industry.

International best practices: Franchise agreements, disclosure norms.

Do we need Govt involvement and regulation?

Way forward in the coming years.

The conclave aims to foster the spirit of franchising in India which is growing at a very fast pace.The franchise event aims to bring the franchise industry together to discuss how they could collaborate to enhance franchise growth and play a vital role in the future of retailing in India .The conclave will see the franchise leaders and the entire franchise fraternity come together to celebrate the coming of age of franchising in India.

Members of the FAI could register online on:
http://www.indiaretailforum.in/fai.asp

Tags:FAI, Franchise Association India, Franchising Association Of India, Franchise Conclave, Franchise Event, Franchise Industry, franchising systems,india franchise, india franchising.

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

JumpBunch Inc USA Appoints Fun Factory India as Their First International Master Franchise

2010-08-12T03:47:00.000-07:00

angalore JumpBunch Inc USA, a franchisor that provides sports and fitness programs for kids, announced the successful launches of its first international master Franchise in India to M/s Fun Factory. As part of their expansion plans, they will run and manage the Franchise network in India. The potential that they see in India is large and they believe that this is a fertile market to tap into as they grow.

JUMPBUNCH® Inc. USA (www.jumpbunch.com) provides a “Friendly Introduction” to sports, fitness, and physical education training to children in Preschools, Day-cares, Schools and other similar facilities for the last 13 years. This program is targeted at kids between the ages of 2 years and 8 years. It currently operates around 37 franchises in about 26 states in the US. This is their first venture outside of the US. Every week 15000 kids go thru the JumpBunch program all over the US.

Thomas Bunchman, President and CEO, JumpBunch Inc said, "We are proud to have Dhana and Deepak as our first International Master Franchise. They are extraordinarily talented people with a passion for introducing sports skills to children across India. We expect this to be a springboard for further international Master Franchises across the globe."

DhanaLaxmi and Deepak, Founders, Fun Factory, said,” Jumpbunch has devised a curriculum that provides awareness and generates an interest among children towards sports and fitness at a very early age. The objective is to make sports and fitness learning a fun and enjoyable activity and to cultivate it as a habit early on in life.” “The curriculum, developed and currently used in the US offering 70 international activities, aims to improve a child’s motor skills & coordination and build soft skills like team play, team work, directional abilities, discipline, etc and also help build the basic skills towards playing bigger and better sports after the age of 8, “ they further added.

The curriculum uses age-specific equipment that helps maintain a high level of safety, preventing any possible accidents or injuries. Their model is a portable one with JumpBunch associating with various schools in Bangalore and offering this activity either as part of the school curriculum or as an after school activity. The sessions are conducted in a musical & fun filled environment with the children enjoying what they are doing and not completely realizing that they are actually exercising and learning the technicalities of the sport. This is also offered in various activity centres as an after school activity across the city.

Tags:JumpBunch, Thomas Bunchman, Fun Factory, Kids Franchise, Dhana and Deepak, Franchise Network, Kids Skill Development Franchise, Kids Development Franchise,kids sports franchise

Source:Businesswire India Posted: Aug 10, 2010 at 1533 hrs IST

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

continent hotels signs south asia master franchise PV Hotels as sole licensors to expand in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Malaysia,Singapore, Srilanka and Thailand.

2010-08-09T23:06:00.000-07:00

Continent Hotels and Resorts Brand Franchise Systems, Ltd. (CHR), has announced that a master franchise license agreement with India-based PV HOTELS & RESORTS PVT LTD will bring the Continent Brand flag to India and South East Asia.

With the agreement, PV HOTELS & RESORTS PVT LTD will become official licensor in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Company announced that according to agreement and plans, 25 hotels opening planned during first year of their license.

"All hotels represent perfect examples of what Continent Hotel, Continent Resort and Continent City Inn symbolize, international standards, blended with Turkish Hospitality," states Ethem Zagikyan, Principal and Managing Director of Continent World wide. "By entering into a joint venture and Master License agreement with PV Hotels, we aim to intensify Continent's position in the market, which includes investing additional resources," continues Ethem. "By increasing our involvement, we aim to boost the developments so to achieve our overall mission of becoming one of the well known brands in the markets we operate in. We are excited to begin granting our third international partnership agreement, and to be partner with PV Hotels. Bringing the Continent brand to South East Asia will contribute greatly to its growing travel and tourism industry."

PUJA MEHTA DIXIT, the President of PV Hotels said; "We are pleased to be working with Continent brand franchise, and look forward to developing and re branding hotels. We have found an excellent fit with our Continent Hotels partnership, a mid and upper scale market limited and full service chain that fits the strategic needs of South East Asia" and adds; "These are important ingredients for our franchise success. The personal support given from the Continent's corporate staff combined with the implementation of PV Hotels experience is a winning formula for growth and success."

About Continent:

Continent Hotels and Resorts® and its standards were founded in 2000 by veteran hotelier Mr. Jirayr Zagikyan who has more than 40 years experience in hospitality field, as Executive Team Member role with Hilton International, Merit Hotels and Resorts and Divan Hotels. Continent brand registered as trademark in 2003 by his son Mr. Ethem Aret Zagikyan and Company started to ramp up in International Arenas not just as Consulting Services Provider but as an International Hotel Operator and brand franchisor. Continent Hotels & Resorts is a privately owned franchise and management company with its head office based in Istanbul, Turkey.

Tags:Continent Hotels, Brand Franchise Systems, PV Hotels, licensor, city inn, ethem zagikyan, joint venture, master license agreement, puja mehta dixit,jirayr zagikyan, hotel franchise

Source:Company Press Release August 7, 2010.

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Ferns N Petals reaches the 100 Stores Mark.Franchise Chain Efficiency To Improve After Tie Up with Heroites.

2010-08-04T05:27:00.000-07:00

New Delhi: Fern N Petals which was started by Vikaas Gutgutia in 1994, as single outlet in Delhi is on a verge to complete its 100 outlets Pan India.

Today, in 16 years, the company is the only branded florist retail chain in the country with around 97 outlets spread across 35 cities, whereas the large number are under the franchising model.

In addition to its own outlet, FNP has 156 vendor partners overseas for global deliveries. The FNP Web site, which caters to the floral need of the customers across the globe to express emotions, makes for almost 18 - 20 per cent of the business.

“FNP offers best services to cater their client with their presence on internet and franchise flower shops, We are the premium online florist offering delivery services of fresh flowers to almost any location in India, said Vikas Gutgutia (MD FNP).

FNP has outsourced it’s call centre to HEROITES, the leading name in the industry to enhance customer relations and improve the efficiency of delivering fast and to maintain quick response to the customers.

“Online flower shopping is an innovative idea to reach directly to the consumers, As per the Market trend, the ever-increasing popularity of exotic flowers makes it a successful mode of shopping as compared to the traditional way of shopping.” said Pawan Gadia, Vice president of FNP, the biggest flower retail chain in India.

Tags:Ferns N Petals, Vikaas Gatgutia, florist retail chain, florist franchise, heroites, pawan gadia, Franchise Management, Franchise Operations, flower franchise, floral franchise

Source:Financial Express

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Preschool Franchise Companies Exploring Varied Franchise / Other Marketing Solutions To Reach End Consumers.

2010-07-29T02:23:00.000-07:00

Organised players go aggressive on branding, market segmentation and price differentiation

When Australia-returned Lina Asher came to Mumbai to volunteer as a teacher, she saw a terrific opportunity in the absence of an organised pre-school player in the market.

Asher then borrowed Rs 30 lakh from her dad to float her own chain of pre-schools— Kangaroo Kids Education (KKEL). “I promised my dad a good investment and today we are a chain of 60 schools in 17 cities across India, with centres in Dubai and Maldives,” says Asher.

While the segment is still dominated (95 per cent) by the aunty-next-door-model kind of pre-schools, organised players are focusing on branding themselves better to reach the target segment. At present, India has around 11 major chains and approximately 10 smaller players active in the space.

And most of them operate just like an FMCG or consumer durables firm would do in marketing themselves – be it in branding, product differentiation and market segmentation according to the specific profile of customers within a locality.

“Branding is vital for us as we aspire to be a national player. We market ourselves with women magazines, newspapers and television channels to increase the enrolment focus,” says Prajodh Rajan, Vice President and Project Head, EuroKids.

EuroKids, present in 258 towns with 650 pre-schools, will spend Rs 4.5 crore on branding and marketing compared to Rs 3 crore last year. Educomp Solutions has also launched a brand ‘Roots to Wings’ with 60 pre-schools at present. Educomp acquired a 50 per cent stake in Euro Kids in 2008 for Rs 39 crore.

These schools have evolved their own pricing model. So while a market like Mumbai may see four-five different pricing strategies, other towns may see uniform pricing. “We have divided our pricing model into four—A B C and D. While for A model pre-schools (upmarket locations) have a standardized fee structure between Rs 30,000 to 40,000 per annum, we charge Rs 20,000 to 30,000 in suburban Mumbai markets. For other locations our charges vary between Rs 12,000 to 20,000 per annum,” says Rajan.

While Kangaroo Kids is primarily a premium brand at an average annual fee of Rs 35,000-45,000, Kid Zee charges anywhere between Rs 100,000 and 500,000 per year for its schools in upmarket metro locations. However, in suburban Mumbai or Delhi or Bangalore, the school's charges could vary between Rs 10,000 and 20,000.

Pre-schools do not follow any structured curriculum. As pre-schools are neither a state or centre subject, the regulatory mechanism does not come in play. That is probably the reason why the sector has been receiving a flurry of investments from the private equity players.

According to a recent report on education by Kaizen Management Advisors, a private equity fund, pre-schools are estimated to be a Rs 2,300 crore segment, and the market is expected to grow to Rs 4,600 crore market by 2012 (35 per cent CAGR).

The growth is due to low penetration (one out of 100 children enrolled), of the 119 million children between the ages of one to four.

“The market is expected to expand by more than two times in size by 2012,” the study reports.

This is evident from the fact that Zee Learn, which runs the pre-school chain — Kid Zee — plans to expand from its 600 odd pre-schools at present, to 2,000 schools in the next three years.

“It’s a service market. If you focus on doing the right thing on child development, an image is being created automatically,” says Sumeet Mehta, CEO - Zee Learn.

Pre-schools require a low upfront investment. Rentals form the major expense along with staff cost.

Organized players have largely scaled up using the franchisee route — 1,700 schools catering to 200,000 students at present.

While these chains also formulate their own curriculum and train their own teachers, infrastructure offerings at the schools vary in accordance with the fee. So while the schools in upmarket areas might have an additional frill of an air conditioned class room and outdoor toys, the ones priced less would do sans these facilities. Teaching methodology and curriculum however, remains the same.

“The sector appears attractive due to its non-regulatory framework. With the kind of aggressive growth plans the organised players have in place, there is a lot of money chasing very few opportunities. It’s only going to get bigger and bigger,” said a senior executive from a private equity firm.

Tags:Franchise Marketing, Franchise Branding, Preschool Marketing, Franchise Advertisements, Lina Asher, Kangaroo Kids, Eurokids, Prajodh Rajan, Zee Learn,sumeet mehta,

Source:Pre-schools learn the ABC of promotions/Business Standard/Kalpana Pathak / Mumbai July 29, 2010, 0:54 IST

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Re-feel Cartridge Gets 20 Cr Funding From TLG Capital For Expanding Franchisee Network

2010-07-28T02:02:00.000-07:00

UK based Private Equity firm TLG Capital has invested $4.46 Mn(Rs 20.5 Crore) for a 36% stake in Re-feel Cartridge Engineering Pvt Ltd in its first Indian private equity deal. The deal values the startup which provides printer cartridge refill and laptop repair services at $12.40 Mn(Rs 57 Crore).

The funds will be used by Re-feel for expanding its franchisee network and expanding its laptop repair business. TLG Capital’s Sidarth Menon has been appointed chief financial adviser at Re-feel Engineering.TLG is also planning to replicate Re-feel’s overall business model in sub-Saharan Africa due to the similarities it sees between the two markets.

In 2008, Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL), publishers of ‘The Times of India’ and ‘The Economic Times’, had completed a private treaty deal with Refeel Cartridge. As part of the deal, BCCL has invested around Rs 15 crore in the company.

Refeel Cartridge was floated in February 2007 but the first store was set up only in August 2007.The company claims refilling inkjet cartridges at their store will enable price saving of 75% than buying an OEM cartridge and 60% for laser cartridges. Little wonder, the company has more than 50 corporate clients.

Refilling printer cartridges is a way by which companies can cut their printing costs by at least 50-60%. Typically, a large organisation has a printing budget of around Rs 5-7 lakh per month.Around 40% of our revenue is expected from the enterprise segment and the balance from the small office home office (SOHO) and retail customers said an official from Re Feel Cartridges.

Re Feel Engineering also owns the Club Laptop franchisee which operates in the laptop service segment.Club Laptop offers a one stop solution for laptop repair and laptop accessories.

Tags:refeel cartridge, refeel franchise,franchisee, franchisee network, laptop repair franchise, sidharth menon, TLG Capital, Franchise Funding, Franchise Venture,service franchise.

Source:India Micro Finance.July 28, 2010.

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Bisleri Franchise Growing Across India

2010-07-28T00:59:00.000-07:00

New Delhi: Bisleri, a company owned by Mr. Ramesh Chauhan, Ex- owner of Brands like Thumbs Up, limca & Mazza, is all set to expand its network & distribution in North India by putting 8 new plants in different parts of Rajashtan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana & Jammu. To cope up with the ever growing market competition and consumer demand, it has decided to increase its network.

After their successful and strong penetrations of the market, they are ready to cater to the consumers through their new franchisee in Varanasi. This would help them to cater the huge markets of Gorakhpur, Allahabad, and Varanasi etc.

Adding to the above,” Director, North of Bisleri “Mr R.K. Garg” said that “In an initiative to strengthen its Supply Chain and cater to its customers in a more convenient manner and to decrease the dependency on outside services, we are adding new vehicles in our own fleet”.

Bisleri offers a range of Packaged water in “Vedica” and” Bisleri with added Minerals” which occupy a market share of around 60% of the organized market in Mineral water segment. The products are available in different pack-sizes varying from 250ML to 20 Ltr Jars. These pack sizes are introduced considering consumer needs.

About Bisleri

The award for “Most Trusted Brand” by Economics Times and that too twice has been the proof of the company’s goodwill. Since it’s inception has been into social service to the nation. Out of 1000 lt of water sourced 956 ltr is returned back to the public as pure & safe water, the rest is lost in process. In India, Bisleri has given birth to pet recycling industry of sorts by creating value for recycled plastic bottles. All bottles after crushing and reprocessing have good economic value and are used as raw material in various industries other than the food industry.

Tags:Bisleri Franchise, vedica franchise, mineral water franchise, packaged drinking water franchise, pure water franchise, water franchise, ramesh chauhan, bisleri, water business

Source:27-Jul-2010 06:18:18 PM/Archit Puri/Mynews.in

This Blog/Information/News Item/Press Release has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based at Bangalore,India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

UCMAS expanding into School Education After Massive Franchise Expansion Across India

2010-07-25T23:30:00.000-07:00

UCMAS Global Education Group is holding talks with state governments in India to introduce the abacus programme in the local school curriculum to enhance mathematical skills among children.

Dr Dino Wong Hoon Wan, founder President of UCMAS, said the company had submitted proposals to two state authorities, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, to promote the abacus programme.

"As a pilot project, we will introduce it in Gujarat, once the government there approves our proposal.We are also in talks with the Tamil Nadu education department.

"Our moderators will train the teachers in these schools.

"The cost will be borne by the states, while teaching materials and training will be undertaken by us. This will help poor children who cannot afford to attend private classes," Wong told Bernama.

He was in Chennai recently to attend the 10th All India UCMAS Abacus Mental Arithmetic Competition-2010, organised by UCMAS India franchisee.

The Kuala Lumpur-based company, which pioneered the Abacus programme and promoted it globally, has about 250,000 students currently mastering the mental arithmetic technique in 3,000 private centres across India.

Malaysia's Consul-General in Chennai, Anuar Kasman, who presented prizes to the competition winners, said the event would provide a platform for children to use their mental skills in calculating arithmetic systematically.

"The continuous efforts of UCMAS will discover genius' and smarter children. It will also create talent for the new generation in arithmetic calculation skills, using their imaginative power," he added.

The company is also in talks with authorities in Botswana, Bahrain, Egypt, and Sudan to introduce the abacus, an ancient art of mental mathematics which originated in China,at the school level.

Tags:Hoon Wan, UCMAS Franchise, Ucmas india franchisee,maths franchise, child development franchise, children education franchise, mental arithmetic franchise, mental maths franchise.

Source:P. Vijian/Bernama/CHENNAI, July 26

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Baskin Robbins Franchise Strategy To Penetrate Upto Tier 4 Cities Of India.

2010-07-25T23:21:00.000-07:00

Baskin-Robbins turned 65 this month. It is much younger in India. Owned by the US-based Dunkin’ Brands, Baskin-Robbins entered the country 17 years ago in 1993 with a couple of company-run outlets in Mumbai and Delhi. Over the years, it has expanded to 400 franchisee outlets spread across 95 cities and is also available at some 600 hotels and restaurants and at about 600 modern-format retail stores. The chain, which is run by Graviss Foods in India and the SAARC region, says it has always grown close to 25 per cent year on year in India.

Now, Baskin-Robbins wants to penetrate deeper and denser. It’s targeting to grow 30 per cent this year. While it wants to expand the number of outlets in cities it is already present, covering pockets where it is not there, the chain is also planning an aggressive roll out in a large number of Tier II and III cities. Says Baskin-Robbins India Chief Operating Officer Subroto Mukherjee, “In cities we are already there, we want to cover the entire geographical spread. For instance, in Mumbai, we have 92 outlets, but there are pockets where we are not there. In and around Delhi, we have 45 outlets, but I see potential for at least 200 outlets.” The chain is looking at activating 80 to 85 ice cream parlours every year. Besides, it is also targeting aggressive growth from food service (hotels and restaurants) and modern-format retail segments.

As for Tier II and III cities, Mukherjee says, “They are yielding excellent results. We’ve seen some startling trends; for instance, parlours in cities like Nagpur and Guwahati have been our top grosser. These cities have got a lot of money with not many places to spend. They are certainly a key growth driver. While we’ll enter newer markets in Tier II and III cities, we’ll also explore opportunities in Tier IV cities.”

Baskin-Robbins is perceived as a premium brand — a regular scoop costs Rs 45, while a premium one costs Rs 50. It is thus positioned between the mass brands such as Amul, Kwality Walls and Vadilal and the super-premium brands like Häagen-Dazs and Movenpik. It thus faces some competition from both the categories as well as other dessert brands like Café Coffee Day and Barista. Mukherjee says the positioning has actually benefited the brand. “We are a very affordable brand and with brands like Movenpik, which cost Rs 150-plus a scoop, coming up, it has made life easier for us. Baskin-Robbins is perceived as excellent quality at a lesser price.” He adds, “We are slightly more expensive than our nearest competitor; however, we are confident that the value the customer gets out of a superior product along with our healthy portion sizes makes it great value. Today, hygiene and quality are critical to the customer and that is where Baskin-Robbins scores over others.”

Baskin-Robbins plans to support its expansion creating some buzz around the brand. Currently, it’s running a promotion campaign on radio as well as print and outdoors celebrating its 65th anniversary. It will also promote the product through kids’ camps, sampling of product through schools, colleges as well as society campaigns, as it has done in the past.

Tags:Baskin Robbins, Baskin Robbins Franchise, Baskin Robins, graviss foods, Ice Cream Franchise, Amul, Kwality Walls, Vadilal, Haagen Dazs, Movenpik, cafe coffee day, barista, ice cream business, ice cream dealership,

Source:Amit Ranjan Rai / New Delhi July 26, 2010, 0:01IST/Business Standard

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Amul To Franchise Its Way To Double Its Presence to 10,000 Retail Stores By 2012

2010-07-25T00:08:00.000-07:00

Gujarats State's largest milk producer, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets Amul brand of dairy products on Saturday said it will double it's retail outlets pan-India from existing 5,000 to around 10,000 by 2012.

"We aim to double the count of Amul Preferred Outlets (APOs) pan-India from the existing 5,000 to 10,000 by 2012. By end of this fiscal we would add close to 2,000 such outlets," National Head retail Amul India, Debashis Chattopadhayay said.

"The outlets shall be opened on franchise model," he said, while talking to reporters on the sidelines of Franchise India organised 'Fro2010-30th National Franchise show' here.

"Contribution from retail segment in GCMMF's turnover of over Rs 8,000 crore stood at Rs 300 crore, in the year ending March," Chattopadhayay said adding that through this segment we are targeting contribution of at least ten per cent of Federation's total turnover.

In the past three years, the Federation has been adding close to 1,500 to 2,000 Amul Preferred Outlets per annum, he said.

"The sales of our dairy products from each outlet has been brisk ranging between Rs 10,000 to 50,000 per day," Chattopadhayay said.

Meanwhile, the board of members of GCMMF are likely to meet on July 27. The agenda for the board meeting consists approval of audited accounts of the Federation.

Tags:Amul, Amul Franchise, Dairy Franchise, Milk Franchise, Co Operative Franchise, Dairy Business, GCMMF, Retail Franchise, Preferred Outlets Franchise, Amul India, FRO, franchise show, franchise expo.

Source:24 Jul 2010, 1746 hrs IST,PTI.

GridBots Looks at 85 Retail Franchise Stores In 2010-2011.

2010-07-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

"We are looking to open another 85 retail franchise stores pan-India, besides the existing 15 such outlets to showcase our entire range of Robots," Founder Grid Bots Pulkit Gaur told PTI.

"The concept of Robot retail stores is new in India and is fast drawing attention from people, as we are ushering into a technology driven era," Gaur said, who founded the company in 2007, with the assistance of Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at Indian Institute of Management, Ahemdabad(IIM-A) here.

"The response at our existing outlets, including cities like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chennai, Rajkot has been very encouraging, as people coming there get a chance to understand everything they ever wanted to know about robots," Gaur said.

"Amongst the start up companies incubated in CIIE at IIM-A, Grid Bots is instrumental in setting up Robotic laboratories in schools and engineering colleges," Joint CEO CIIE Pranay Gupta said, adding that the company has been doing well since there business model is very knew to India.

The company manufactures Robots for educational purposes, besides those providing working solutions for small and medium enterprises and petty household chores.

"We have leads for setting up 25 robotic laboratories in schools and engineering institutes across India," Gaur said.

"The company can also offer course material for starting robotics in schools or colleges," Pranay Gupta said.

"Robots manufactured by them are capable of cleaning large tanks of industrial units, they can scrub the tank floors," Pranay Gupta said adding that they have recently launched a robot, which is customised for performing jobs in hospitality industry.

"The robot is capable of acting as a waiter in any hotel," Gupta claimed.

"In the education sector they are manufacturing robots, which even a 6-7 year-old child can programme to perform certain tasks like for operating personal computer, follow a line," he said.

CIIE at IIM-A provides financial assistance to companies coming up with innovative ideas in preferred sectors like Internet and Mobile, Healthcare and Clean technology solutions, Gupta said.

The Centre provides financial assistance to select start up companies between Rs 3 lakh and 30 lakh, he added.

Tags:Robotics Franchise, Retail Franchise Stores, Grid Bots, Gridbots, robot retail stores, robot franchise, pulkit gaur, pranay gupta, financial assistancet, Start Up Franchise, innovative franchise, emerging franchise,Top Franchise,

Source:Ahmedabad, July 24, PTI

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

International Ice Cream Franchise Brand Baskin Robbins Looks to Expansion In Tier 2/3 cities Of India

2010-07-24T05:52:00.000-07:00

World's largest ice-cream chain, Baskin Robbins, is planning to enter tier II and tier III cities in India [ Images ] as a part of its expansion plans.

Graviss Foods, the master franchisee for Baskin Robbins ice creams in India, said that the company plans to launch new products, such as sticks and cones, targeting middle-class customers.

Speaking to rediff.com, Subroto Mukherjee, COO, Baskin Robbins - South Asia said, "We plans to add 80-90 stores year-on year and in line with our aggressive penetration plan. However, we will also re-focus our resources and energies in penetrating newer markets."

The company plans to add more parlour operations this year in South Asian countries also. A lounge concept in the cities is also on track and the company plans to introduce more of dessert-based ice-creams, added Mukherjee.

Baskin Robbins was launched in India in 1993. Since then it has posted a growth of 25 and 30 per cent in the Rs 800-crore (Rs 8 billion) organised ice-cream segment. Today, it has 400 stores across 93 cities across the globe.

"As we operate through a sub franchisee format, we have the franchisee invest into the business. Currently, our factory has the capacity to take care of the business needs for another two years without any significant capex requirements," he said.

Baskin Robbins will introduce new and possibly cheaper formats in small towns, to make the brand more affordable. The premium ice cream brand now sells a scoop between Rs 45 and Rs 50.

The company plans to introduce low fat and a low sugar variety in the menu to cater the taste buds of health conscious customers.

The company is also planning to launch a TV campaign to highlight its new product range and intends to bring in one new flavour as 'flavour of the month"

Source:Deepa Menon/Mumbai/Rediff.com

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Automobile Dealership Franchise Opportunities In india Renewing Faith In The Growth Story Of The Segment: Mercedes Benz India Excerpts.

2010-07-24T05:12:00.000-07:00

Mercedes-Benz was the first amongst German luxury car makers to set up shop in India. It is only recently that it has been challenged by arch rivals BMW and Audi. The volumes in the luxury car market might be small but the fight is intense. Some time in the future, India could become a big market. Whoever makes the first inroads could have the last laugh as well. Mercedes-Benz India sold 2,401 cars between January and June 2010, up 79 per cent from the same six-month period in 2009. Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director & CEO Wilfried Aulbur discusses his strategy with Bhupesh Bhandari. Excerpts:

Your first-half numbers look good. Which way is the market headed?
We are bullish. We think that India is a country that has a very bright future, and we think with our investments in the network, in the factory, in our engagement with our customers, in our people, in processes and with the kind of exciting products that we are able to bring to the market, we have what it takes to profit from India’s growth and exuberance.

We expect strong double-digit growth in the luxury car segment. We think that there is a lot of untapped potential because of the increasing wealth in the country and the changing attitudes. We believe there’s a very good potential for significant Mercedes-Benz sales in the country.

What is the return on investment for your dealers or the break-even period?
I’m not going to disclose that. But what I can tell you is that our franchise is attractive. If you look at our partners, all of them have invested and re-invested huge sums into the business. It is more than Rs 200 crore across the country. These commitments by partners clearly signify that they have faith in the brand, and that they have made money in the past and they expect to make money in the future.

Are you satisfied with your price points in India?
I think what should happen is a reduction in CBU (completely built units) import duties to enable more import of vehicles into India at reasonable prices. Currently, duties add about 115 per cent to the cost of the vehicle. With reduced duties and correspondingly improved prices, we would definitely see a significant surge in volume; and with that surge in volume we would see more investment in the country in terms of production.

Do you have a local vendor base at the moment?
Yes, we work with various local vendors. We have people who assemble the engine for us, the power train, the gear box, the axles, the underbody of the vehicle and the cockpit. So, there is value addition with local vendors as well, besides the value addition that we are doing in the factory.

And how many of the components are made in India?
What is happening is that we work with Indian suppliers and try to get them to become our global suppliers. For an Indian company, it doesn’t make sense to invest in tooling for just a few thousand vehicles. The only thing that is of value to an Indian company is when it becomes a supplier to our global range of products. A good example is Bharat Forge. It is doing the crankshaft for our new four-cylinder diesel engines.

And how many such vendors do you have?
We currently work with 30 to 40 vendors and we have a list of about 300. We have also invested in sourcing out of India. We used to have an Asian procurement office in Singapore. Now we’re sourcing out of China and India.

What does the audit of your brand show? How does it compare with other German car makers?
Our brand claim is: The best or nothing. For us, this clearly means that we want the best or nothing for our customers. That means the best or nothing in terms of infrastructure on the retail side — sales and after-sales. It means the best or nothing in terms of the kind of products we bring into the country, the kind of technologies we bring into the country, and the kind of customer connect that we have.

What will be the average age of your customer?
It will be 35 to 40. That’s quite low compared to other markets.

Has it been coming down over the years?
Absolutely. Wealth generation in India is happening rapidly, and it is happening with young people — either as entrepreneurs or as high-level executives in multinationals and large Indian companies. This is the kind of clientele we are tracking.

Some experts say that Mercedes-Benz is a car for the previous generation.
Not at all. If you look at our DNA, our heritage, you will find that as a company, we take advantage of changing platforms to make sure that we design vehicles that speak to Indian customers. We have a very aggressive and sporty C Class, we have a very aggressive and sporty E Class, and we have a very dominant S Class. These are designs and interpretations of Mercedes-Benz that attract not only the young at heart but also the young.

Till a few years ago, Mercedes was the undisputed choice of the CEO. Is it still the No.1 choice?
If you look at the S Class segment, we’re clearly the leader by a significant margin. In the E Class segment, we are the leader. We’re also the leader in the M Class segment. In the C Class segment, we’re currently a little behind but we’ll change that by the end of the year. So, I think we’re doing quite well both at the entry level as well as the top level where you simply want the best vehicle money can buy. There’s only one luxury brand in this country that has proven its worth on Indian roads time and again and that’s Mercedes-Benz. We’re able to offer a three-year warranty on our vehicles. Again, nobody else does it. Why? Because we have faith in the performance of our vehicles and in the experience of our vehicles in an Indian environment that makes it feasible to do this.

Do you see a Mercedes-Benz car built just for India or are the volumes still too low?
The volumes are too low. If you look at China, it has now over 100,000 Mercedes-Benz cars on the road. So, that clearly means you will ask the Chinese customer what he or she wants when you design your new vehicle. China today is the largest S Class market, twice as large as Germany. So, we will design the next S Class according to the Chinese taste. And I think this again takes us back to my point about bringing down import duties.

Your trucks are perceived as very expensive. You need to bring down the prices.
You need to bring up your purchasing power. The fact of the matter is that the right way is not to say, “Oh! You are too expensive”; the right way is to look at it, say, on a GDP-per-capita basis. A truck is a business proposition. My product in terms of total cost of operation vis-à-vis the revenue it generates needs to make sense to customers. If you look at truck operations, you’ll find that in terms of maintenance cost, uptime, fuel efficiency, load carrying capability, Mercedes-Benz trucks for mining operations make sense. That’s why we’ve been able to sell more than 800 trucks already in the country, and we’ve been able to do that in a profitable way — we were cash flow positive in the second year and broke even in the third.

For buses, last year was very difficult. We sold only nine buses in 2009 because our target market segment collapsed. We wanted to sell to the private operators but they simply did not have the money.

Tags:Automotive Franchise, Automobile Franchise, Automobile Dealership, Automotive Dealership, Wilfried Aulbur, Mercedes Benz, BMW, AUDI,attractive franchise, automobile business,Automotive business

Source:Bhupesh Bhandari / New Delhi July 23, 2010, 0:25 IST/Business Standard.

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Find a New Franchise Business In Hyderabad:Franchise Your Existing Business.

2010-07-24T04:52:00.000-07:00

Have you been looking out for new business opportunities which you can begin? Hyderabad Franchise Expo on August 7/8 is the perfect platform to choose a new franchise business. You can visit more than 30 franchisors showcasing their businesses and seeking franchisees in Hyderabad and surrounding regions. You could also visit the franchise bazar booth which will showcase 100's of reputed franchise business opportunities. If you have an existing business that you want to expand using the franchise model, you could have a free franchise counselling session with a senior franchise consultant at the venue.

Show Will Be at:Hotel Taj Krishna, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.

Tags:Franchise Exhibition, franchise expo, franchise show, Franchise Opportunities, Franchise Business, Franchise Hyderabad, franchise andhra,franchise vizag, franchise vijaywada, business hyderabad

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Edify Education From DRS Group Looks To Start 50 School Franchise By 2015.

2010-07-20T04:50:00.000-07:00

Hyderabad-based Edify Education, which aims to start 50 schools across the country by 2015, has announced its plans to start eight schools in the state, with an aim to provide international education. The group is assessing locations like Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Surat, Vadodara, Anand, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Junagadh, to name a few for setting up schools on franchisee model.

Edify Education is an initiative of DRS Group, which has interests in logistics, warehousing. The group forayed into education in May this year and will be setting up three schools in Ranipet (Tamil Nadu), Nagpur and Amravati (Maharashtra) in 2010-11. Besides Gujarat, the group aims to start more schools in the coming years in prominent centers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and other states.

AK Agarwal, director, DRS Group said, "We plan to start two schools in Gujarat in the academic year 2011-12 and eight across the state by 2015. There is a huge demand-supply gap for quality education at affordable prices and Edify Education has been launched to tap this demand. Edify will provide quality international education with global orientation pan-India and will be in easy access to even middle class families. We have an aggressive growth plan to launch 50 branches by year 2015."

The evaluation process in these schools will be skill based and will assess the child's ability to conceptualize, process information and apply the same in a creative manner. While, the schools will follow CBSE curriculum; it will also bring in global orientation like learning by participation. All these campuses will have temperature controlled classrooms, and all other facilities which will help in the development of mind, body and soul, a release from the group stated.

In the process of exploring franchising options for the state, Edify will host a Franchise Expo on July 24-25 in Ahmedabad.

Tags:Edify Education, franchisee model, School Franchise, DRS Group,AK Agarwal,franchising options, franchise expo, Education Franchise, school franchising, k12 franchise, pre-school franchise,

Source:Business Standard: July 20, 2010.

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Barista To Look At City Franchisee Model For Further Expansion

2010-07-19T04:39:00.000-07:00

Mumbai, July 18 (PTI) Barista Coffee Company plans to increase the number of outlets to 300 from the existing 225 by 2012, a senior company official said. Currently, the company has around 225 Barista Lavazza Espresso Bars and Barista Lavazza Cremes in over 30 cities across India.

"We want to increase the number of outlets to 300 by 2012," the company''s Vice-President, Supply Chain Management and Commissary, Sandeep Sharma, told PTI here. However, the growth would be more consolidation-driven than expansion, he added.

The cafe market in India is currently worth over Rs 5,000 crore, in which Caf Coffee Day (CCD) is a major player with a 60 per cent market share, followed by Barista with 30 per cent. "There is a huge potential for the market to grow in the near future.

We want to take advantage of this and make certain corrections in our strategy by adopting the consolidation method. Increasing the number of outlets would also be a part of the consolidation phase," he said.

The company will look at expansion during the 2012-2015 period. "After 2012, once the market picks up, we will take the necessary steps for expansion," Sharma said.

He, however, refrained from commenting on the investment the company was planning to commit. About the company''s plans for exploring the franchisee model in the country, Sharma said, "Currently, we have no franchisees (in India) and all the outlets are owned by us.

However, in the future, we might go in for city franchisees, where a franchiser could open four to five outlets in a city." The company is currently operating international franchisees in Colombo, Dhaka, Dubai and a few other countries, he said.

Tags:International Franchisees, cafe franchise, Barista Franchise, franchise model, barista franchise, cafe coffee day franchise,sandeep sharma,lavazza franchise, lavazza Creme, city franchisees,

Source:Yahoo News, 18 July 2010.

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NDDB to set up Franchise Veterinary Centres

2010-07-19T04:33:00.000-07:00

To provide subsidised livestock health care services, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) subsidiary, Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL), will set up 1,000 veterinary centres all over the country in the next three years.

Of the 1,000 centres christened as ‘Raksha’ Veterinary Centres, about 300 would be set up in Uttar Pradesh alone.

These centres were started in western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh on a pilot scale to offer quality veterinary health care services at affordable cost to livestock owners.

Nearly, 200 such centres, including 100 in Uttar Pradesh, are currently operated by the company’s franchisee veterinarians.

“India’s milk requirement is estimated to touch 180 million tonnes a day by 2020 from about 100 million tonnes at present. Unless, the country’s livestock is provided better veterinary services, including prevention of diseases, the milk production may not match the heightened demand,” IIL’s head (animal health) marketing N S N Bhargav told Business Standard.

He said the country lost an estimated Rs 20,000 crore annually due to livestock diseases and the cost incurred in their treatment, besides loss of business in meat exports.

IIL is the largest veterinary vaccine manufacturer and exporter in the country and caters to nearly 80 per cent of the domestic vaccine requirement for Foot and Mouth Disease.

The company is setting up a new vaccine manufacturing unit at Hyderabad at an investment of Rs 150 crore and it would be functional by mid 2011. It would produce both human and animal vaccines.

“We will soon launch two veterinary and two human vaccines, including the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine, which will be launched in December after human trials are completed and it is approved by the Drug Controller General of India,” Bhargav added. IIL would increase the number of ‘Abhay Clinics’, which are franchisee vaccination centres for humans, pan-India, from 3,000 at present to 5,000 in the next five years.

Tags: Raksha Veterinary Centres, Franchisee Veterinarians, govt franchisees, franchisee vaccination centres, abhay clinics,government franchise,public franchise,

Source: Business Standard / Virendra Singh Rawat / New Delhi/ Lucknow July 19, 2010, 0:40 IST

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L'Occitane Debuts In India With Devi Resorts Signs Master Franchise With Sanghvi Brands

2010-07-19T04:19:00.000-07:00

L'Occitane, the natural skincare and beauty brand, is on an expansion mode. After recently becoming the first French company to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and being oversubscribed 160 times, it is now entering the Indian spa market in partnership with Devi Resorts.

“India is now a priority for us. Our three stores in the country have been very successful. Our original plan was to open 20 stores in the next five years, but returns have been promising and we are planning to open four more by the end of this year. Internationally L’Occitane spas are present on the high-streets, in stores and resorts. The idea of opening the spa here is to extend the entire experience to our Indian customers as well,” says Guillaume Geslin, country manager, L’Occitane India.

Apart from the L’Occitane signature treatments, new treatments are being developed using local ingredients from Rajasthan. “We are trying to bring together the concepts of Indian and mediterranean well-being,” says Geslin.

Christened ‘Devi Spa by L’Occitane’, the spa will premier in Devi Garh palace, Udaipur, and two upcoming properties of Devi Resorts in Jaipur—the Devi Ratan and Rasa. The spas will be operational in October this year. “Devi Ratan resort will have a 20,000 sq ft spa, making it one of the largest in the country. The Rasa resort, adjacent to a wildlife reserve and sharing a boundary with the 400-year-old Amer fort, will have 500 sqft luxury tents with private spa pavilions,” says Rajnish Sabharwal, president, Boutique Hotels India.

Sanghvi Brands has been given the master franchise to operate the spas by L’Occitane in India. “We intend to launch at least five spas in India over the next 24 months covering metros and tourist destinations,” says Darpan Sanghvi, MD, Sanghvi Brands.

Tags:L'Occitane, Healthcare franchise, beauty franchise, Spa Franchise, Spa Business, L'Occitane India, Sanghvi Brands, Darpan Sanghvi, wellness franchise,best spa franchise,

Source:FE Bureau,July 18, 2010.

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VIP Industries Growth On The Backdrop Of Franchise Expansion

2010-07-17T03:37:00.000-07:00

When ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala picks up stake in a company, you are likely to seriously consider investing in it and, more often than not, you will hit the bull’s eye. Of late, the stock of VIP Industries has been making headlines for the interest shown by investors such as Jhunjhunwala and Ramesh Damani. Last month, Jhunjhunwala added 1.34 per cent stake to take his total holding in VIP Industries to about 6 per cent. “They saw potential in our company and invested, and are extremely happy today,” says Dilip Piramal, chairman of VIP Industries, whose stock price jumped 10-fold over the past 16 months — from Rs 33.80 on 31 March 2009 to Rs 365.30 on 12 July 2010. During the same period, Piramal’s personal wealth also swelled from Rs 41 crore to Rs 450 crore.

Piramal says this stellar growth is the result of a strategy shift last year. “We had increased prices of our mass premium product (VIP brand); the strategy didn’t work. In fact the competition ate into our market share. Last year we repositioned our brands, which gave us very good results,” he says.

The results were tangible. VIP overtook Samsonite’s American Tourister last year in the mid-segment market. The company’s revenues and profits also improved. It reported a net profit of Rs 50 crore in FY2009-10 against Rs 9 crore in the previous year, and revenues of Rs 636 crore against Rs 525 crore. “In any given year, if the sales go up by 15 per cent with the overheads remaining the same, the net margin can increase by 30-45 per cent,” says Piramal, who credits the company’s growth to his daughter Radhika, who took over as managing director on 1 May 2010. “Long-term planning, adapting to situations and the ability to carry managers along with her have been her strong points,” says Piramal, a music buff who is now busy selecting 100 songs for Saregama for a collection of CDs to be launched this Diwali.

By this year-end, VIP plans to become debt-free. Last year, it brought down debt from Rs 135 crore to Rs 85 crore and in the first quarter of FY2011, it further reduced it to Rs 35 crore. The company earns 90 per cent of its revenues from the domestic market, with the major chunk coming from the mass segment. It has 350 exclusive retail outlets, of which 125 are company-owned. “Our approach has been mostly through the franchise model. But if dealers aren’t willing to open franchises in certain regions, we open our own stores,” says Piramal.

Despite buying premium luggage maker Carlton of the UK six years ago, VIP had not launched the brand in India as it was offering Delsey at the top-end. “The premium segment being quite small, we felt it did not make sense to have two brands,” says Piramal. “But with the termination of the contract with Delsey, we plan to introduce Carlton in India.”

Piramal hints at getting into other lines of business, but doesn’t give details. However, the market seems to have already sensed it. No wonder the stock is still attractive despite trading at a PE (price-to-earnings) multiple of 21 times on a one-year trailing basis. Jhunjhunwala seems to have got this one right, too.

Tags:Samsonite Franchise, VIP Franchise, Luggage Franchise, Luggage Store Franchise,Radhika Piramal, Dilip Piramal, dealer franchise, dealership franchise, Delsey Franchise, Brand Franchise

Source:Mahesh Nayak (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 26-07-2010).

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Moti Mahal Franchise Restaurant Reaches Shimla.

2010-07-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

On an expansion drive, Moti Mahal Delux announced opening of franchise restaurant with Bridge View Regency, on The Mall here today.

Speaking on the occasion Ashim Gujaral, executive director of privately held chain of restaurants, said that food outlets were facing competition in the Indian market but their unique cuisines, were not in direct competition with McDonald’s and other fast food outlets as they mainly catered Indian curry tastes centered around lunch and dinner.

Where as in large cities, the chain had opened specialty restaurants that served either Indian, Chinese and continental, or coastal foods, but in small cities, a multi cuisine menu was catered to.

With the Shimla opening, the Rs 300 crore Moti Mahal chain has established 75 restaurants in India and 4 abroad, which are one each in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai and London.

Mukesh Malhotra, managing director of Bridge View said on the occasion, besides the Shimla restaurant they were seeking out opportunities for opening restaurants in Manali and Dharamshala, under the popular franchise.

Among the famous customers that have had a meal at Moti Mahal eatery, the chain counts India’s first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, former American president Richard Nixon, former Pakistan prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto among others who have eaten at the Daryaganj outlet in Delhi.

Starting out from Peshawar in 1920, Moti Mahal established its first eatery at Daryaganj after Independence. From a popular Dhaba, the group has expanded and hopes to increase the number of outlets to over 100 in the next few years.

Tags:Moti Mahal Franchise, Indian Food Franchise, North Indian Food Franchise, Moti Mahal Chain, Ashim Gujaral, Speciality Restaurant Franchise, Moti Mahal Eatery,Fast Food Franchise,Moti Mahal

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Keen To Clean Founder Brij Purohit Looks To Franchise In India

2010-07-16T00:25:00.000-07:00

Domestic and commercial cleaning franchise, Keen to Clean, has plans to launch into the Indian market before the end of the year.

Founder and franchisor Brij Purohit, who comes from India, told Franchising "The market in India has a huge potential and I know the market very well."

The structure of the franchise business in India is yet to be finalised, said Purohit, who launched his one-stop cleaning business in 2003 and began franchising two years ago. There are now 13 franchises in Victoria and one in New South Wales, offering carpet, blind and upholstery cleaning as part of the service.

Tags:Cleaning Franchise, commercial cleaning franchise,Service Franchise, Keen To Clean, Brij Purohit, Franchise Business, Franchise Structure, franchise model, Franchising In India,

Source:Franchising.com 16 July 2010

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Pot Pourri and Lemon Grass Cafe Franchise Expanding

2010-07-13T05:07:00.000-07:00

Mumbai-based Zrii Hospitality which is licensed to use restaurant brands like Pot Pourri and Lemon Grass Café, plans to promote its brands through franchising. The Group is seeking potential partners for franchise mode of operations. Pot Pourri is a world cuisine café operational in Bandra and Navi Mumbai in Mumbai, whereas Lemon Grass Café serves cuisines from South-east Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, China, Burma, Vietnam and Korea), which has its outlet in Bandra and Malad in Mumbai.

Speaking with Hospitality Biz, Nitin Tandon, Chef Owner and Food Stylist, Zrii Hospitality said, “As a brand management company, we would expand through franchising, company owned and management contracts. Franchising is a great way to expansion. Working with right partners one can delegate entrepreneurship and capital infusion too is easier for projects. Management contracts for the food and beverage (F&B) world is nascent and lack of technical expertise in F&B will always keep the door open for management contracts, coupled with strong growing brands.

Tags:zrii hospitality, nitin tandon,lemon grass cafe franchise, pot pourri franchise, world cuisine franchise, south east asian restaurant franchise, cafe franchise, speciality food franchise,

Source:Hospitality Biz India
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The CADD Centre Franchise

2010-07-13T03:08:00.000-07:00

Explore the franchise opportunities at CADD Centre, Asia’s largest network of CAD, CAE, and Project Planning Management (PPM) training centres.

From a “single-product”, “single-unit” training centre in Chennai, in 1988, CADD Centre, today, is offering authorized courses for over 20 market leading products in CAD, CAE, PPM and Modeling & Animation domain. It has over 280 franchises in about twelve countries including Malaysia, Singapore, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan, Nigeria, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and UAE.

We attribute this phenomenal success to our domain focus and to our “Franchise first” expansion model. Our multi-faceted growth has been driven by our steadfast adherence to the core values, core vision, and core vocation of excellence.

CADD Centre started Franchising in 1995, and from then on its expansion plan has always been through franchise growth. It regards franchisee of CADD Centre as a CADD Centre that “we do not own”. Except the ownership, it takes responsibility for the franchisee revenues and profitability month after month. The performance of CADD Centre employees is assessed by the profitability of the franchisee centres.

Among the key promises of CADD Centre include:

• Centre quality
• Software compliance
• End customer satisfaction
• Course quality
• Course delivery quality
• Course compliance
• Instructor training
• Viable franchise business plan

CADD Centre takes complete control of the quality of the courses and course delivery.

Core Values:
We place the franchise’s interest first and accord foremost importance to the quality of services in: identifying market needs, conception of curriculum, course delivery, franchise support and partnering with product developers. Our values-driven approach has bestowed on us the market leadership and made us a premium training partner for global product companies.

Core Vision:
We strive to create our presence world over as a provider of high-quality training, products and services in CAD, CAE, Project Management and Modeling & animation domains. We expand through franchising, which we consider is a sustainable model of co-operative entrepreneurship. Our franchise model is homegrown and proven successful within India as well as outside.

Core Vocation Of Excellence:
At CADD Centre, we consider that “training the trainers” is our core competence that brings in standard quality and uniformity of superior customer experience across all our franchises. We continuously engage software product companies in our training.

We also facilitate the knowledge transfer and collaboration within our franchise community by organizing various events. Besides, we associate ourselves with industry bodies that work for the promotion of computer aided engineering and management education.

CADD Franchise Expansion
Through franchising, CADD Centre has increased its presence from one centre in 1995 to 280 centres in twelve countries today. However, the company does not expand for the sake of expansion. CADD Centre looks for a steady growth. It signs a few franchises, works with them for some time till they stabilize and then go for signing the next batch of new franchises. The preference for the long-term growth has helped CADD Centre to achieve over 95% success rate and a 40% year-on-year annual growth rate in franchising for many years now.

The positive feedback from customers, good word of mouth references, and increase in the network are good evidences to show that the CADD Franchise system is a success. Reference and positive word of mouth are two very important ways CADD Centre attract new franchisees. This enables a new franchise to come on board with the right expectations.

CADD Centre is keen to promote entrepreneurship (“intrapreneurship”, rather) among its employees. What stands testimony to the company’s drive towards creating entrepreneurs is the fact that many CADD Centre franchises are owned by its past employees and students, who are familiar with the company’s culture and value system.

Franchise Support - Operation
CADD Centre is a process driven organization. The day-to-day operations of the Centre are well defined and the franchisee employees are trained and retrained to carry on the business as per the process chart. The franchise is not left to any thinking or imagination when it comes to course delivery or deliverables to customer. This ensures there is a uniform delivery of knowledge and skill to every individual registering for the program. Also, the regular monitoring of the Centres, gives a good amount of control in ensuring that the Franchise system is consistent.

CADD Centre is where it is today because of its close working relationship with the franchisees. The Centre offers an induction program for three days for all franchises to provide them with guidelines for handling the operations of the centre. The franchises are guided through a handholding approach.

Franchise Support – Marketing
CADD Centre franchisee is one of the most profitable education franchisee systems in India and hence growing even in challenging times. CADD Centre does not compete with but differentiates itself from its competitors. It builds its growth on referral marketing. It regularly invests in making referral marketing work. CADD Centre believes that “word of mouth” sales are much effective than any other mode of selling. It does not encourage franchises spending too much on promotion, as providing quality education will do a great deal of marketing. However, it does use traditional media and advertisement, in association with its franchises. The shared marketing expenses help both the franchisor and the franchise invest more and get better results.

CADD Centre discusses its marketing plans and brain storms ideas with every franchisee, and facilitates in the creation of marketing plans that are unique to every centre. CADD Centre runs six regional support centres across the country to provide support to the franchises and market test the programs before they are launched at the franchise centres. The Regional Support Centres study the patterns and device/test new marketing plans. Public Relation activities are handled in every location at regular intervals to make sure CADD Centre is on the news for good reasons.

CADD Centre supports its franchises in Creatives, media planning and Market Strategy promotional plans. It designs art works for marketing that is most suited for the target and the event.

CADD Market Leadership
CADD Centre is a 22 year-old CAD training company. It has embraced franchising as a sustainable model of cooperative entrepreneurship, for the last 15 years. Through franchising, the company has increased its centres from one in 1995 to 280 today. In the very first year of its operations, CADD Centre trained 40 people but the number of people trained by the CADD Centre has crossed the 500,000 mark! All these make, CADD Centre one among the world leaders in CAD/CAE/PPM training, Asia’s largest training network and India’s most influential launch medium for any CAD/CAE/CAM/PPM product companies in the world.

CADD Centre demands a premium from the principals (software product companies) as well as the customers (students and corporate employees). It offers the most comprehensive range of training programmes in its domain. CADD Centre believes that it is able to achieve gain and retain its market leadership in a very specialized segment only because of its deep insights into the franchise business.

CADD Franchise Revenue Sharing
CADD Centre has a very unique franchisee model where by the franchisee is allowed to earn in proportion to the efforts they put in the business. CADD Centre does not charge royalty based on the revenues – CADD Centre believes that when a franchise puts in a lot of efforts to increase its collections and profits, it is only fair to allow the franchise to retain a lion’s share.

The revenue sharing is based on a percentage – an annual fee – that is worked out at the very beginning, adhering to the business principles, size of operations and market potential. The annual fee model helps CADD Centre and its franchises keep their level of commitment at peak. Based on the track record of the performance of franchises, CADD Centre reworks the revenue sharing model to reflect the aspirations of franchises.

Franchise Requirements
CADD Centre franchise needs to be a local person. CADD Centre believes that a local person is the best to deliver the services exactly the way an end customer would want it. That is one of the reasons why it has taken the franchise route for expansion.

At CADD Centre, the franchisee is not just an investor but an entrepreneur responsible for success of the franchise centre. The franchise owner looks after the day to day operations of the Centre and sets and meets the targets to make the Centre profitable. CADD Centre works closely with the franchise in initial investments. It teaches the franchise how to work the costing and the investment. As an extension the franchise also understands how to handle the returns.

The franchise invests in physical infrastructure including hardware and software – the initial investment varies depending on the market size. CADD Centre charges an annual fee, which is not fixed based on the revenue. This means there will be no increase in the annual fee in proportion to the increase in the franchise’s revenues.

As for the centre premise is concerned, CADD Centre insists on a comfortable space with ventilation to accommodate class rooms labs, meeting rooms, sales cabins, manager cabins, staff room, store room, toilets, and of course, reserved parking space. There could be spare capacity to be used for walk-in demonstrations and special training on software.

CADD Franchise Relationship
CADD Centre treats its franchises as customers and evolves a win-win strategy. It gives a lot of value and priority to its relationship with the franchise. The company listens to its franchises and hand holds the franchise in business operations

Many franchisees of CADD Centre are its long time associates. For instance, its first franchise partner, Mr.V R Chander started CADD Centre at Coimbatore in a 1200 sft space in 1995. The first year revenue was Rs 24 lakhs. Today, he runs 3 centres in Coimbatore in over 10,000 sft space with revenue of around Rs 200 lakhs.

Tags:cadd franchise,Training Franchise, Education Franchise, Cadd Centre, franchise model, software franchise, franchise expansion, franchise system,franchise support, franchisee system,Franchise Business,

Source:franchise.caddcentre.ws

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Gokaldas Plans Large Wholesale Stores In Chennai & Delhi

2010-07-13T02:51:00.000-07:00

BENGALOORU: Blackstone Group Lp funded Gokaldas Exports Ltd is looking to expand its wholesale business to achieve an all-India footprint and reduce inventory.

The move by India's largest garment exporter comes at a time when growth in overseas orders, particularly from Europe, is uncertain, prompting many textile firms to eye the growing domestic market.

"At any given point of time, we have about Rs60 crore of inventory and this (cash and carry) format will be an effective means to dispose of it," managing director Rajendra Hinduja said.

Gokaldas's apparel business has a requirement of around 4 million metres of fabric a month, some of which is piled up as inventory if there aren't adequate export orders.

Gokaldas Franchise, Cash and Carry Franchise,Alok Industries, H and A, franchise model, textile franchise, Apparel Franchise, Export Surplus Franchise,Blackstone Group.

The Bangalore-based firm, which employs 41,000 people, sees huge potential among small retailers and wholesalers, and plans to open large stores in Chennai and New Delhi after its 30,000 sq. ft wholesale store in Bangalore started doing well since it opened in late 2009.

In the past few months, the Bangalore shop has been earning about Rs 1 crore in revenue every month. This is set to double, said Hinduja.

The firm plans to open a 12,000 sq. ft store in Chennai's Nelson Manickam Road this year, followed by a 20,000 sq. ft shop in New Delhi.

"This format is new and pricing will be one of the key determining factors to decide whether it would work," said a Bangalore-based retail consultant, who declined to be named. "Exporters such as Gokaldas should keep the prices attractive to attract small retailers and shouldn't get lured by high margins."

Though cash and carry is uncommon among garment exporters, large firms such as Gokaldas and Mumbai-based Alok Industries Ltd have begun to use this route to better penetrate the local market.

Integrated textile firm Alok Industries launched its retail apparel brand H&A three years ago, but converted it into a wholesale format in December last year. "We have about 220 stores through a franchise model and will expand the network to 400," chief finance officer Sunil Khandelwal said.

"With the growth in India's organized retailing, exporters will increase their domestic business to 30% from the current average of 10%," said Prashant Agarwal, vice-president, Technopak Advisors Pvt. Ltd, a management consultancy.

Gokaldas expects that around 10% of its net sales of Rs1,100 crore would come from its cash and carry business in a couple of years.

According to Technopak, India's textile exports are valued at above $20 billion (Rs93,400 crore), while domestic textile and apparel business is $40 billion.

Like many of its counterparts, Gokaldas Exports reported a loss in the March quarter. It posted a net loss of Rs14.41 crore in the three months compared with a net profit of Rs4.72 crore in the year-ago period.

Since many textile exporters are incurring losses and their margins are under pressure, they are likely to venture into new businesses in the fiscal year to March 2011.

Gokaldas, for example, has also started a high-margin industrial textile business this year and has secured its first order of 100,000 uniforms from the US.

Tags:Gokaldas Franchise, Cash and Carry Franchise,Alok Industries, H and A, franchise model, textile franchise, Apparel Franchise, Export Surplus Franchise,Rajendra Hinduja, Sunil Khandelwal.

Source:Bharattextile.com

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Factory Discount Store,The Loot Expands Its Reach To Tier II & III cities.

2010-07-10T05:27:00.000-07:00

Jay Gupta doesn’t like MBAs. He feels they are too process-oriented. “They can drive a car from place A to place B. Ask them to create a road and they cannot do it,” says the 34-year-old founder and managing director of the discount store The Loot. “They don’t know how to deal with entrepreneurs who run our franchises in smaller towns. The franchise owners are much more street-smart than they are,” he adds.

Gupta should know about blazing new roads and negotiating deals with tough cookies. He is the person the Indian garment retail industry credits with pioneering the discount store format. Today, the company he started in 2004 has a turnover of Rs. 108 crore. It’s a far cry from his village in Raxaul-Briganj, at the Bihar-Nepal border where his family ran a food grain business.

Before getting into the details of the business, let’s understand what The Loot is and how it operates. The fashion industry works season to season. When one season comes to an end, the companies try and get rid of their excess stock by having an end of season (EOS) sale. “After EOS sales, companies are stuck with a large amount of unsold inventory,” says Deven Pabaru, business development head, Future Supply Chain Solutions, the logistics arm of the Future Group. The Loot buys this stock at 50-70 percent less than the MRP and sells it at 25-60 percent less than the MRP. The way The Loot operates is different from companies like Vishal Mega Mart which bargain with producers on bulk quantities and source it directly from the manufacturer or distributors.

Who are its customers? Anyone who loves a good bargain.

Here is where you buy a pair of Levi’s jeans for Rs. 600. Of course, there is no guarantee that you’ll get another Levi’s at the same cost the next time you visit.

The first store opened in Marine Lines, Mumbai in 2004. It stocked Levi’s, Lee Cooper, and Spykar among other brands. Sales in 2007 touched Rs. 23.5 crore. By then The Loot had 14 stores across Mumbai. Today it is present in 85 cities with a total of 150 stores and 600 employees.

Expanding on the Idea
Gupta has been in the garment retail business since his second year of college in 1996. He started off with a multi-brand store in Vashi, Navi Mumbai, before moving on to exclusive stores and then factory outlets. Eight years into the business, he realised that there was a section of consumers — value conscious bargain hunters — that no one was targeting. That was the start of The Loot.

Now, Gupta is expanding his business to tier II and III towns. For that, he needs money. He wanted to come out with a Rs. 100 crore initial public offering (IPO) last year but couldn’t do it because the market was depressed. “Let it [the Sensex] settle down above 18,000. Then we’ll take a call,” says Gupta. Till then, the company is getting by with a Rs. 40 crore loan from the State Bank of India and internal profits.

He wants to open 150 stores in the next two years. Why is he being so aggressive? Profits. Margins in the business are a measly 3-4 percent after taxes. He needs scale.

He wants to make sure he grows at such a pace that new entrants cannot catch up. Six years after he began, there have been copycats. But they are small players. No one has been able to replicate his model on a national scale.

Gupta believes his systems are in place; the time is right for expansion.

For that he also needs competent people to run his business. This is where the MBA conundrum comes in. In 2005, when The Loot began to expand, Gupta realised he hadn’t accounted for a lot of factors. “You need tech support, your management cost increases, warehousing comes in, branding, marketing… all these factors that never existed earlier become a cost,” he says. He hired people from the Indian Institutes of Management and poached some from companies like Adidas and Levi’s. But he found that they couldn’t help him with figuring out these processes.

He began employing people from “Hindi medium places”. “They might not be able to speak to you in English, but they’ll get the job done,” says Gupta.

Another solution to the manpower and real estate issue was to opt for the franchisee route, which it did in 2007. Today, out of the 150 stores, only 40 are company run. Franchisees get 28-33 percent of the purchase price depending on store size.

Of course, not having the MBAs has hurt the company. In the initial years, the company often used to misjudge the quality and quantity of stock it needed. Says Kanchan Gowda, who has been working with Gupta since 2000, “We used to get into problems. At the time Jay used to say, ‘We haven’t done any management course. So we did not see this coming. We’ll count this loss as our course fees,’” she adds.

Navigating the Challenges
A major challenge for The Loot is adequate merchandising. Brands do not supply to it throughout the year. Contracts are signed when brands want to offload unsold merchandise. One bad buy can wipe out a large chunk of profits. The Loot has four screenings before it buys merchandise. “The VP of the merchandise department takes a look, then the president, then the CEO and then me,” says Gupta. Even then, around 15 percent of the inventory remains unsold. But Gupta insists, “Everything is saleable. You just have to find the correct price.” The Loot sells it to the unorganised sector at a 20 percent discount to its purchase price.

Once merchandising is sorted, Gupta has to worry about how to supply all of his stores. When he had fewer stores, it was easier. Now stores run a risk of very limited choice because merchandise has to be shared. “We’ve divided our stores into different formats, depending on the size of the store: Small, medium, large and XL,” says Gupta. Only large and XL stores have all the Loot products. The company researches the other formats and only sells the most popular brands in the region.

Gupta has also started his in-house brands to compensate for times when brands may not have extra merchandise to sell. Two of them, Eccentrics and Bus Stop, are already in his stores. Two more, IOU and Road, will debut this Diwali. In 2008, Eccentrics and Bus Stop accounted for 25 percent of sales.

While he seems to have a handle on merchandising, Gupta is grappling with transport. The Loot has a 1 lakh sq. ft warehouse in Mumbai from where he supplies to stores as far away as the North East. A national transport agency is too expensive. But Sanjay Vakharia, marketing director, Spykar, one of India’s largest home-grown youth brands, doesn’t see this as a big hassle. “You have to remember that the garments industry in India is very well settled. So say, if The Loot has trouble supplying merchandise to a franchisee in Jabalpur, the Jabalpur guy will know someone in the town who gets materials from Mumbai. He will tag along with him,” he says.

One reason why transport is an issue is because of haphazard expansion — from Mumbai to Nashik to Delhi to Chandigarh to Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad. “Yeah, we made a mistake then. Now we target a state, get into a city and move out into another region only when we have established ourselves properly there,” says Gupta.

With The Loot moving into smaller cities, it is expanding the market for other brands. “He has more reach than hyper-markets. He extends the customer base,” says Abhishek Ganguly, director, sales, Puma. But this could work as a double-edged sword for brands which do not have a presence in these places. “This will make it very difficult for brands to set up full price stores in previously unexplored areas. Once people are used to buying goods at a discount, they will be very hesitant to pay full price,” says Vakharia.

But Gupta isn’t thinking about that as he continues his expansion plan. He has the first mover advantage and he isn’t going to let it slip through his fingers.

THE FIVE WORDS OF CAUTION
Scale
Targeting 150 stores in two years. No guaranteed merchandise from any brand. Sourcing merchandise for 300 stores will be a huge task.

Solution Developing its own brands. Eccentrics and Bus Stop are in stores. IOU and Road will debut this Diwali.

Transport
One centralised warehouse in Mumbai. Rising cost of petrol, delays on road. Difficult to reach far-off stores.

Solution Team up with other retailers in the city. Use common transport.

Quality
The reason why brands sell merchandise to The Loot is because no one wants to buy it; 15 percent of The Loot’s merchandise remains unsold.

Solution Increase filtration levels. Introduce more quality checks.

Space
India is one of the most expensive markets for real estate. Realty makes up 15 percent of total costs.

Solution Continue to rent locations that are away from High Street. Move to the outskirts.

Technology
Tech support is a huge cost. Bar coding from different suppliers. Needs to know individual needs of stores.

Solution TCS is creating an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system for the company to manage internal and external resources.

Source: This article appeared in Forbes India Magazine of 16 July, 2010

Tags:discount store franchise, loot franchise,franchise owners, franchisee route, factory franchise, factory stores, brand factory franchise,low cost franchise,

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Vithal Kamats Offer 100% Veg Franchise Outlets Across India in 3 Models.

2010-07-10T05:15:00.000-07:00

He started his career as a dishwasher boy, earning a livelihood but supporting a family, late Shri Venkatesh Kamat had his start in humble beginnings. Through sheer hard work and keen business acumen, he started his first restaurant at byculla.

Not content with its doing well, his ambitions was supported by his wife, Smt. Indira V. Kamat, who pawned her jewellery including her mangal sutra to set up the flagship Satkar in 1938 . From there the group only went from strength to strength adding many restaurants under his fold such as Suruchi, Sanman etc…

Later he was joined by his sons, and the group opened their first ‘Thali’ restaurant - ‘Samrat’ in 1973 followed by ‘Status’ respectively. The growth of the group exploded after the efforts of our current Chairman Shri Vithal V. Kamat. Under his guidance 'Kamats' become a household name especially in Maharashtra & Gujarat with a 'Kamats' restaurant at almost every major junction of South Mumbai.

Born with keen business sense, Shri Vithal V. Kamat had the opportunity to tone his skills while working with his grand father Shri R.P. Kamat in Bangalore. With his hard work and determination, Mr. Vithal V. Kamat grew more larger than the general name 'Kamats' to become a brand in himself.

In 1997 Shri Vithal V. Kamat split from the family, as written in his famous autobiography - ‘Idli Orchid ani Me’ (Marathi best seller), and made his own path.

As guest came to except high level of quality, hygiene & service from Shri Vithal V. Kamat, it became more necessary for him to branch out on his own name. Therefore, to better identify with his fan following and to differentiate 'Vithal Kamats - Restaurants' from other general ‘Kamats’, in 2005 the group reinstated itself as 'Vithal Kamat – Original Family Restaurant' to be better identified for the quality and product that he stood for. He followed his zeal for restaurants under the flagship company - KRPL (Kamats Restaurants Private Limited), which is ambitiously growing from strength to strength on highways across India. KRPL owns and also franchises its restaurants across India and are offering franchisees in 3 formats now:

Highway Model
This model caters and serves the clientele that are traveling. Basic motive is to provide the Common Man with an option where he/ she can break the journey without any apprehension. The best example of Highway Model is Vithal Kamats at Panvel on Mumbai Goa Highway. Basic requirement from Franchise is: Highway Touching- Prominent Location Area Required: 3000 to 4000 sq ft (Seating 100- 150 People).

City Model
This Model is in the form of a Fine Dining restaurant that is present at the high traffic moving streets of a city and that serves the local crowd. The best example of City Model is Vithal Kamats at Vastrapur, Ahmedabad. Basic requirement from Franchise is: Road Facing- Prominent Location Area Required: 2500- 3000 sq ft (Seating 80- 100 People).

Kiosk Model
This Model is basically designed for Malls and places with minimal space acquirement. Serving in majority fast food and ready to eat items.The best example of Kiosk Model is Vithal Kamats at Hotel VITS- Andheri (Mumba). Basic requirement from Franchise is: Location in a high footfall area. Like in Malls, Commercial complexes, Institutions, Bus Stops, Railway Stations etc... Seating as per area available (may or may not be there).

kamat franchise, kamats franchise, kamath franchise, kamaths franchise, Thali Franchise,idli orchid ani me,kamat restaurant franchise, 100% veg franchise, KRPL,highway franchise,

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Pavers England Opens its second (franchise) store at Select City Walk

2010-07-10T03:36:00.000-07:00

A year after it opened its first exclusive brand outlet (EBO) in Delhi, at Khan Market, premium leather footwear brand Pavers England has opened another EBO at Select Citywalk mall. The store is spread over an area of 670 sq.ft and offers footwear and accessories, including handbags, for men and women.

Utsav Seth, CEO and MD, Pavers England, said, “We are delighted to open our exclusive franchise store at Select Citywalk, one of India’s most vibrant malls, to showcase our world-class products to the people of Delhi. The collection is inspired by global fashion trends, keeping in mind the sensibilities of the discerning customers.”

Pavers England plans to open four more stores in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai within a month.

Besides the EBO format, the brand is present in leading department stores, such as Lifestyle, Central and Shoppers Stop, in the shop-in-shop format.

Pavers England was launched in 2008 as a result of a partnership between Pavers Foresight Smart Venture and Chennai-based Forward Group, a high-quality footwear exporter.

Tags:Pavers England, footwear franchise, premium footwear franchise, retail franchise business, franchise store, pavers foresight smart venture, forward group, footwear retail franchise.

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Just Books Library Franchise Founder Sunder Rajans Journey Of Starting The Library Chain

2010-07-02T23:30:00.000-07:00

One afternoon last week I met R Sunder Rajan, the founder of Just Books at N S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), IIM, Bangalore, where the two-year-old startup is incubated.

Rajan belongs to a new generation of entrepreneurs, who has slipped into something totally different after years of working in IT firms. Rajan spent 15 years at the IT firm IFlex, after joining them as a fresh graduate from Regional Engineering College, Trichy. The soft spoken and mild-mannered Madurai native in his late thirties says, “My father says I am the first in the family to ever handle a cash box.”

Rajan started a book library near his Whitefield home in mid 2008, since he couldn’t find a good library close to his home. So was the case for a lot of other Whitefield residents. He was surprised to see the tiny operation gain a thousand members in a couple of months.

The response prompted him to take a break from his job around the same time, and he felt he had an entrepreneurial streak; this was a creative pursuit different from his normal work. He explains, “Books looked like an easy thing to handle.”

140000 books, 60000 titles, ten branches and 10000 members, reports Rajan as he describes the growth of Just Books in a short time. One can visit the library to rent, read and return, or do the same online, with books door delivered. Just Books is positioned as a family centric, open to all library, with plans starting at Rs 150 a month, without a pay-per-book charge. They plan to focus primarily on books without getting diverted into coffee shops and movie rentals.

Rajan’s vision is that every neighbourhood has a Just Books store, and the book base is large enough so that every reader finds his or her book, and every book finds its reader. I talked to Rajan for a little over an hour about his journey.

What is innovative about Just Books?

It’s (mainly) the packaging. We had picked up retail industry concepts, like good ambience, good flooring, false ceiling, throwing technology – RFID, self service, and kept the library functioning at the core: take books, read and return and pick up.

How did the firm grow?

I took a break from work, spent a few months at the library, lot of people asked if I can do something like this in their neighborhoods. Why are you only here (in Whitefield), can you do something in Indiranagar? Essentially (it was) leading to franchises, so I read up on franchise model…didn’t want to go against natural momentum.

At one of the Franchise conferences, I bumped into a team from NSRCEL. So I went and gave them a presentation. We formally got incubated in May 2009 (NSRCEL supports startups with incubation facilities and mentoring help. Just Books got incubated there and NSRCEL helped Rajan firm up the franchise model. The JP Nagar branch opened early 2009, followed by many other franchise branches over the months. Just Books now has 30 employees in all, divided into the retail, technology and books teams.)

At the same time (January 2009), I though it’s good to experiment and look at another branch. I looked at JP Nagar and consciously looked at a different kind of neighborhood such as more traditional ones to find out if there are still takers for a library. Then the outline fell into place

Instead of one big library, there should be lots of small libraries, and connect them and let people know they could walk into any library.

How did you hire people?

We initially looked at people with library science background, but they were looking for corporates/schools and couldn’t connect to this. Most of them wanted to work from 9am-6pm. Most of them wanted to join IT companies and handle the libraries there. We ended up drifting to guys with retail industry background. They were quite okay with spending long hours, shifts, working Saturday and Sundays.

How do the staff connect with the readers?

We had a book centric approach, but since the people came from retail industry background, they could engage with the customers.

I thought I could use technology, to bridge the gap to provide book related interaction. I think there is still a missing connection, sometimes when a reader asks for a book, (the staff) don’t the know spelling of a popular writer.

But many of them (BA, BCom graduates) see it as a good career opportunity to learn, they are those who never got an opportunity.

How do you find the reading population of the various neighbourhoods?

The crowd in each area is unique; there is a lot of peer pressure in choosing a book. Whitefield community read a lot American authors such as Junie B Jones, Judy Blumes, whereas in places like Jayanagar, Amar Chitra Kathas are still popular. We try not be judgmental, all books are available in all branches. Enid Blytons and Hardy Boys are still popular, there are takers.

People take offence if you don’t have good Kannada collection in Jayanagar. JP Nagar has more of a mixed crowd, not so traditional.

What about regional language books?

Regional language books have their own takers if the right collection is available. They don’t want to read the old classics again and again. But there is a supply side bottleneck. There aren’t enough books getting published. I want to have a million books to meet the need of Bangalore’s reading population.

So what kind of books do you stock?

The regular popular books and we also have literary panels which recommend specific books.

How do you ensure every book finds its reader?

We have our reader base. We also ask publishers to send their samples to Just Books.

What’s your take on public libraries?

A library is considered a civic amenity for public good. Public libraries are book centric institutions where all kinds of books are available. But it is a volume game; it’s a challenge for a purely government run organisation to cater (to a large reading population like ours).

Do you think there is a trend of those moving out of IT?

It’s very visible. IT industry middle management phase is boring, fairly long phase..there is a strong ecosystem especially in Bangalore.

Is it an issue coming from a pure professional background?

It’s actually a big strength not to come from a business background. We are more into lifestyle and service. Also the book trade has people from family businesses, they find it refreshing to talk to people like us.

Tell me about your family.

Meenakshi, my wife, she is an integral part of this whole thing. We met at iFlex, she still continues there, we chose that one of us spends energy in this. I was comfortable stepping out of the system. When it was just an interest, whole family was extremely supportive, but I talked about switching to full time, there were mixed reactions. People were not sure. There were no serious objections, but they felt, why so much energy on a library chain. But they could connect to the idea of books (we were a reading family).

What do you yourself read?

I read more of non-fiction, little bit of many things. Currently reading Business at the speed of thought by Bill Gates. I read Malcolm Gladwell, Ramachandra Guha and so on.

What are your challenges now?

Expectations will run ahead of our capabilities, that is going to be our main challenge in the next year. A year back, even when we were sloppier, they would say nice things. Now they come with a certain expectation…we may be able to scale much slower than expectations. I am hoping people give us a little longer rope.

Tags:Just Books Store, franchise model, franchise conferences, NSRCEL, franchise branches,Library Franchise, Books Franchise, Reading Franchise, Just Books,R Sunder Rajan, Start Up Franchise.

Source:Meera K,Citizen Matters.

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Roshan Taneja Performing Arts, Acting, Bollywood , Dance,Training Franchise

2010-06-25T02:50:00.000-07:00

Acting is the art and art has to be nurtured properly. Roshan Taneja is a film acting institute in Mumbai. It provide training in acting, television acting, film acting, diction training, theatre acting, bollywood dance, professional acting. It is the leading acting school in India and has many success stories with glorious 45 years of successful training.

Roshan Taneja Foundation for Performing Arts
Mr. Roshan Taneja is Indian guru of acting and has been teaching over 45 years. Roshan Taneja school of acting is the pioneer acting school in India. It conducts acting classes, professional acting course, bollywood acting course, theatre acting course, training in action, diction course, television acting course, crash course on acting, etc.

Course And Curriculum
With wide experience in field of teaching acting, Roshan Taneja provides all kind of acting courses which includes Improvisation, diction training, action training, monologue training, bollywood dance training, professional acting course, television acting course, bollywood acting course, theatre acting course etc.

Faculty
Roshan Taneja is the leading film acting institute in India who offers training on acting course like professional acting course, training in acting, film acting course, television acting course, theatre acting course, bollywood acting course, training in action, bollywood dance, diction training, scene training etc. with help of professional acting tutors who have huge experience and are associated with acting school since years.

Admissions
Roshan Taneja acting school is one of the leading film acting institutes in Mumbai and offers admission to people who want to learn acting. It offers professional acting course, television acting course, theatre acting course, bollywood acting course, training in action, bollywood dance, etc.

News
Roshan Taneja foundation of performing art has been the centre of attraction for acting professionals in Mumbai. It is the leading acting school in Mumbai and offers course on professional acting course, theatre acting course, television acting course, bollywood acting course, etc. and always remains in news due to various actors coming to acting school and giving their valuable tips to students on how to improve acting.

Franchise for Acting School
Roshan Taneja which is leading acting school in India, now offers franchise to the interested persons, this franchise will offer same training which Roshan Taneja school of acting conduct. These trainings will include professional acting courses, television acting courses, theatre acting courses, diction courses, bollywood acting courses, dance training, action training, etc.

Roshan Taneja Foundation of Performing Art, Mumbai
For any kind of training on professional acting classes, theatre acting classes, television acting classes, bollywood acting classes, action training, bollywood dance training, diction training. Contact Roshan Taneja which is the leading acting school in Mumbai.

Tags:Acting School Franchise, Performing Arts Franchise, Roshan Taneja Franchise, Franchise For Acting School, Film Institute Franchise, Dance Training Franchise, Bollywood Franchise.

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Gili to open 50 EBOs (COCO & FOFO Stores) by the end of 2010, Bets big on Tier II cities.

2010-06-24T00:24:00.000-07:00

Having embarked on its shop-in-shop (SIS) format around 15 years ago, Gili – the diamond jewellery brand of Gitanjali Group – is set to open 50 exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) by the end of this year. The EBOs, known as Gili World, have two formats – COCO stores (company owned and company operated) and FOFO stores (franchisee owned and franchisee operated) – and will be launched in tier II cities across India.

"EBOs are a new territory and in the branded jewellery segment, there is immense growth potential in this format. Having said that, it is also known that Gili is a pioneer in the category and enjoys a big chunk of the market share – about 46 per cent in SIS. So, the next logical step for expansion and growth is to capitalise on the EBO format," underlines Rahul Vira, CEO, Gili India Ltd.

Stressing that there is a lot of potential in tier II cities, Vira says, “Through Gili World, we are aspiring to create a great shopping experience for customers. While we increase the number of touch points, we also give a wider range of jewellery to choose from and go an extra mile to create customer delight.”

On why the company is upbeat on the franchise route, the CEO of Gili India says, "There is a lot of entrepreneurial calibre in India. When we choose our partners, we hope to capitalise on that skill. All our partners have strong local networks and knowledge of the catchments, making the entire business more personalised. Penetrating in tier II cities based on their experience gives us an opportunity to reach a wider customer base and make available premium products to jewellery buyers."

Gili currently has a pan-India presence through 16 operational EBOs and 145 SIS counters with major retailers such as Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Westside, Just In Vogue and Landmark.

Gili's existing COCO stores are located at Select Citywalk, Delhi; The Great India Place, Noida; Mantri Square and Garuda Mall, Bangalore, and R-City and Inorbit, Mumbai. Its FOFO stores are present at Hisar, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Nagpur and Satna.

Tags:gili franchise, gitanjali franchise,branded jewellery franchise, fofo stores, franchisee owned franchisee operated, tier 2 city franchise, shop in shop franchise,
coco stores.

Source:India Retailing Bureau, June

The company is exploring new locations and potential markets and has zeroed in on locations such as Aurangabad, Pune, Nagpur and Bangalore for its upcoming stores. The investment is facilitated through internal accruals.
This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Titan Industries Plans 50 Helion, Premium Watch Stores By 2015

2010-06-24T00:13:00.000-07:00

Leading watchmaker Titan Industries Limited today announced to invest about Rs 100 crore for opening 50 premium watch outlets Helios in next five years to attain a sales target of Rs 400 crore.

"We have plans to open 50 outlets of Helios, which may involve an investment of close to Rs 100 crore in next five years," Company's Vice President (Retail) Ajoy Chawla told reporters after unveiling firm's second such outlet here.

In the first phase, the company will open 15 stores in top 10 cities within a year in line with its plans to have pan-India presence. "We are looking to open Helios outlets in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad etc in next 12 months," he said.

Titan Industries had come up with its first Helios store in Bangalore one and a half years back.

Although, Chawla refused to share details of revenue collected from the premium watch stores at present, he said the company targets sales of Rs 400 crore in a span of five years.

Stating that the company would also explore options of opening stores through the franchise route, Chawla said it would like to have outlets of size ranging between 1,500 square feet to 2,000 square feet.

The size of the premium watch (starting from minimum Rs 5,000) market is around Rs 500 crore and has the potential to grow further, he said.

"Last year, the market for premium and luxury watches took a hit due to slowdown. But this market has the potential to grow 30 per cent per annum in next five years in view of the growing purchasing power of people, who are highly brand conscious," he asserted.

Helios houses 34 fashion and premium global watch brands including Emporio Armani, Burberry, FCUK, Movadao, Fossil, Guess, Casio, Seiko, Titan etc.

Titan Industries is a joint venture between Tata Group and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation.

Source:Press Trust of India / Chandigarh June 22, 2010, 18:03 IST

Tags:Helios Franchise, Titan, Ajoy Chawla, Helios Outlets, franchise route,premium watch franchise, luxury watch franchise, global watch brands,Titan Franchise,Best Franchise, Latest Franchise.

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Shapoorjee Chandabhoy To Invest In Franchise Companies, Ace Tours and Liverpool Retail.

2010-06-22T05:14:00.000-07:00

AHMEDABAD: Mumbai-BASED non-banking finance company (NBFC) Shapoorjee Chandabhoy Finvest Pvt Ltd (SCFPL) is planning to invest in two Gujarat-based small and medium-size companies — Ace Tour & Travel Ltd and Liverpool Retail India Ltd. The negotiations with both the companies that are into travel and readymade garment business are at the final stages and expected to conclude within the next few months.

If all goes as planned, SCFPL will pick up 26% stake in Ace Tour, a Surat-based travel company, for Rs 25 crore, and 20% in Liverpool Retail India Ltd, an Ahmedabad-based readymade garment retailing company, for Rs 15 crore.

Confirming the development, SCFPL president Farzan Ghadially told ET: “We are in the final stages of negotiation with both the companies. We see a lot of potential in both the sectors.” He further said the firm was looking at investments in the Rs 1 - 25 crore range, targeting small and medium size enterprises.

According to Liverpool MD Kailash Gupta: “The deal is yet to conclude. If done, we will be using the funds for further expansion.” Liverpool promoted by Vijay Singh Rathod and Kailash Gupta ventured into the readymade garment sector in 2001 and launched its fashion retail chain across the country under the brand name Liverpool in 2006.

Liverpool Retail recently added five family showrooms in Gujarat, Mumbai and Bangalore and plans to further scale up its presence in other parts of the country. “We intend to open up 50 family stores and also start our own garment manufacturing,” added Mr Gupta.

Currently, Liverpool sources its garments from third parties. With fresh capital infusion, it intends to source 25% of its garment requirements from in-house manufacturing. "It's a backward integration for us," he pointed out.

Ace Tour on the other hand wants to expand in western India especially in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Currently, the company has presence in four major cities of Gujarat and at a few locations in Maharashtra . Talking to ET, Raju Choksi MD of the Surat-based company said: “Once we are done with western India, then we will go for pan-India expansion.” Ace Tour & Travel was established in 1996 as a small family run neighborhood business, founded by Raju Choksi and Bharat Choksi. By 2008, the company expanded to seven branches. It now has 12 franchises in India and in the UK .

Tags:Invest In Franchise, Franchise Investments, Franchise Funding, Franchise Financing, Ace Tours, Travel Franchise, Raju Choksi, Liverpool retail, kailash gupta, vijay singh rathod, bharat choksi, Apparel Franchise

Source:22 Jun 2010, 1450 hrs IST,ET Bureau

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IRCTC Warns Its Franchisees Against Taking Bribes, Cracks Whip against Erring Franchisees.

2010-06-20T23:40:00.000-07:00

Ensuring that all franchisees offer their services in line with the franchisers guidelines and code of conduct,Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) recently announced that it will cancel the franchise of the owners, if they book “tatkal” e-tickets online against payment of graft, said Mr Shishir Khare, zonal tourism officer of IRCTC of eastern zone. He said the IRCTC will reject the user identification number of the offender permanently.

Mr Khare also pointed out that they have already rejected 3000 franchise on charges of irregularities. The IRCTC has already organised seminars and meeting for the franchise to aware them not to indulge in malpractice. Mr Khare highlighted that they will also aware train passengers as they will inform senior IRCTC officials whenever a passenger will be a victim of any malpractice by any franchise. IRCTC, on of India's largest franchisers has 50,000 franchises in India, who help passengers to book e-ticket, hotel booking, cab booking and charter coach booking. Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Anti-Fraud squad of commercial department of Eastern railway have arrested 39 touts on charges of selling train tickets outside of railway reservation centre.

Taking strong steps on proper franchise management, IRCTC, reached out to its franchisees to fall in line, to ensure that its customers have a hassle free ticket buying experience.

Tags:IRCTC Franchise, Railways Franchise, Franchise Rejections, Cancel Franchise Agreements, Franchise Training, Franchise Management,Franchise Relationship, Training Programme, Franchise Malpractice

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Goldgenie Appoint AARi as India Master Franchise

2010-06-20T23:27:00.000-07:00

AARi one of India’s largest diamond treatment companies has bought a Goldgenie Master Franchise. Launching on Monday, the owners are a match made in heaven for Goldgenie who already supply bespoke diamond phones and iPods. With the help of their Asian partners, they are looking to expand this part of the business into the lucrative Indian market. Our Goldgenie partners will be carrying out the same services as Goldgenie in the United Kingdom which includes customization of products in finishes such as gold and gold plating, platinum, Swarovski crystals and diamonds.

Tags:Goldgenie, AARi, Gold Plating Franchise, Swarovski, India Master Franchise,Indian Master Franchise, Asia Franchise Partners, franchise partners,India Partners, India Franchisee,india franchise,

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International Bakery Chain,Cinnabon, Opens Its Second Franchise Outlet In India at Bandra, Mumbai.

2010-06-20T23:18:00.000-07:00

An American bakery chain that sells cinnamon-flavoured rolls has opened up its second outlet in India, in Bandra. The first ever Cinnabon Bakery opened in Delhi a year ago.

Now the first Mumbai branch has opened its doors in Pali Naka, on the former premises of HAS Juice bar. Apart from being a take-away, the bakery also has a small quick-service seating area.

Dish Hospitality, which runs Aurus in Juhu, has the master franchise for the Cinnabon brand in India and intends to open up 150 outlets here over the next eight years. A second Mumbai outlet will open in Juhu opposite the JW Marriott Hotel on June 29.

The entire menu at the bakery in India is eggless. Naveen Madan, brand head of Cinnabon India, says: “This suits the Indian palate as many Indians don’t like eggs. The secret is that despite not having eggs, they taste exactly the same as the ones made across the world with eggs. Indians are known for having a sweet tooth and these are anytime snacks.” Madan adds, “We think they will especially appeal to college students and ladies.”

The American company started in Seattle in 1985 and now has 650 outlets worldwide. It is most famous for its Cinnabon Classic Roll, which is priced at Rs 100 at the Bandra branch.

A guarantee of Cinnabon is that any roll is sold hot within 30 minutes of being baked on the premises. Cinnabon signature frozen blended drinks include MochaLatta Chills as well as MangoLatta Chills.

Tags:Bakery Franchise, Bakery Chain, Cinnabon, Dish Hospitality, India Master Franchise,Veg Franchise, Vegetarian Franchise, Cinnabon India, India Entry Strategy, India Franchise Consultants,

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.If you are a company or group seeking international franchisees or are a international brand seeking india master franchise or India Entry to Establishment Solutions, Speak to Us. Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Watch IT Opens Its First India Franchise Store At Andheri, Mumbai.

2010-06-20T23:02:00.000-07:00

Watch IT! Incorporated recently opened its first store in Mumbai, India. Watch IT! Inc. entered into a master franchise agreement with the retail subsidiary, Solo Commodities Pvt. Ltd. of the prestigious Lokhandwala Infrastructure Group -- one of Mumbai's premier real estate developers.

The agreement calls for the opening of 10 new retail stores across India with the first store now open in Mumbai's new first-class shopping center the Mega Mall in Andheri with the second location opening next week.

"Opening in India along with Lokhandwala Infrastructure is very exciting for the entire company. This is a key step in our planned international expansion and we are fortunate to have great local partners, a great team of staff and we feel confident that our boutique and unique product mix will be well received in the Indian market." Says Darren Bondar, President & founder of Watch IT!

"Watch IT! is a dynamic company with product offerings, vitality and creativity that rubs off on our customers which will allow us to continue to expand our company through a combination of corporate and master franchise openings worldwide."

Rishi Somaiya, Executive Director: "We identified a need in India for quality watch and sunglass retailing. After searching worldwide for a concept, we found Watch IT! and our due diligence and likeminded company philosophies concluded that the Watch IT! format will significantly improve the retail experience for watch consumers in the market."

About Watch It Incorporated

Founded in 1999, Watch IT! is a retail company that is expanding worldwide through a combination of corporate and master license agreements. Watch IT! aims to capitalize on the gap in the international marketplace by issuing master franchise licenses to qualified partners.

Watch IT! carries a huge selection of the biggest names in fashion watches and sunglasses, including brands such as Fossil, Diesel, Swatch, Nixon, Citizen, Seiko, Guess, Oakley, Spy, D&G, and more. Each boutique carries hundreds of unique and innovative brand name styles of watches, sunglasses, jewelry and accessories that are cutting edge and lead the worldwide industry in both technological innovation and fashion design. Watch IT! customers take pride in their individuality, their sense of style, and their appreciation for quality.

About Solo Commodities PVT. Ltd.

Solo Commodities PVT. Ltd. is a newly formed retail division of The Lokhandwala Group. Founded in the year 1966, the group is diversified beyond its main line of business which is Real Estate and Property Development, are has activities such as exports, high tensile steel wires, plastics, outdoor advertising and event management.

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.If you want to know the finest master franchisees available for India Call us for our customized master franchise match making services.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Compucom Play School Signs Its First Franchise In Jaipur, Rajasthan.

2010-06-18T23:14:00.000-07:00

Compucom Software Ltd has signed its first franchise agreement to open a Pre-School under Compucom PlaySchool brand name in Jaipur Rajasthan. The company has ventured in Pre-School business seeing the huge market for such branded pre-schools in India. Some of the researches have estimated a market size of Rs 5,000 crore and is estimated to grow by 25% annually. On BSE, the company's shares were up 2.46% at Rs 18.75.

Source:LIVE FROM BSE/NSE,18 Jun, 2010, 1530 hrs IST,

Tags:compucom software ltd, compucom playschool, franchise in jaipur, franchise in rajasthan,pre-school business, branded pre-schools, Pre School Franchise,

This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Nirula's to expand its franchise footprint aggressively.

2010-06-17T01:25:00.000-07:00

Going ahead with its expansion plan, Nirula's has recently opened outlets in Mumbai, Indore and Mussoorie.

"We would soon open more outlets in Mumbai, Bangalore, Jalandhar and Pathankot," said Samir Kuckreja, CEO and MD of Nirula's.

The QSR chain currently operates 75 outlets in 16 cities and the company plans to take the count to 200 outlets by March 2011. "The 125 new outlets will include 80 metro express format at Delhi Metro (stations) and 20 company-owned ice-cream kiosks. These formats will significantly improve our footprint and enable us to penetrate the Delhi, NCR market through increased customer touch-points," he added.

The company plans to have both metro express format, covering an area of 50-60 sq ft, as well as ice-cream kiosks/parlours, spreading between 75-200 sq ft area on an average.

Franchising is the next big ticket item for Nirula’s. "Currently, we have a number of franchisees to whom we provide training, product and marketing support in setting up and successfully running their restaurants. We’ve recently opened outlets in Indore, Mussoorie and at the Mumbai domestic airport. We are in discussions with potential franchise partners to open more outlets in Mumbai, Bangalore and Jalandhar and also looking at other opportunities including transit locations such as railway stations and inter-city bus stands, corporate parks/buildings and educational institutions," said Kuckreja.

For the entire expansion plan, the company would need Rs 15 crore, which would be raised through internal accruals, equity infusion and debt. The company has significantly increased the investment budget for its marketing plan, this year. "Each new unit has a marketing budget for which a plan is made on the basis of local unit requirements," Kuckreja added.

Tags:qsr chain, nirulas franchise, express format franchise,franchising, potential franchise partners,railway station franchise, franchise at bus stands, franchise expansion, Mumbai Franchise.

Note:This Blog has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.

Reliance BIGFlix Looks at 150 Stores By Mar 2011 Via Franchise Route.

2010-06-16T04:31:00.000-07:00

BIGFlix Movie Rentals, India’s largest online and offline movie rental service (a division of Reliance BIG Entertainment), announced today, its retail expansion plans via the franchise route with a total of 150 stores by March 2011. BIGFlix.com will deliver movies at home to the people residing in Tier II cities which will include Jaipur, Vadodara, Surat, Lucknow, Nasik, Jamshedpur, Kochi, Patna, Nagpur, Kanpur and many more.

BIGFlix currently delivers movies to 9 cities with a total retail presence of 60 stores and an access to a wide range of 21000 titles across 13 Indian languages. BIGFlix.com will engage local logistic partners best suited to the respective cities’ dynamics to deliver movies at home to the masses. The BIGFlix franchise business will have two models, namely, Store franchise and Master franchise. Store franchise, is where the interested party can become the franchise of a single store in any specific city and Master franchise, is where the interested party can opt for the franchise of a set number of stores for a specific geographic location.

Speaking on the announcement of the franchise plans, Mr. Puneet Sachdeva, Chief Lead- Franchise Operations, BIGFlix.com, said, “We are all geared up with the launch of our new expansion plans with the franchise route. While we will focus on the brand building and content acquisition aspects meeting with the specific requirements of the denizens residing in these cities, our franchisees will handle all the logistics and operations of the business. Considering that even today we see 75 – 80 % of our registrations come from the offline route, and constant tremendous response in terms of enquiries / registrations on our website from these cities for our movie service, we are confident that franchise model will be the most feasible path at this stage. Currently we have a customer base of 80,000 customers and with the franchise foray we aim to reach a target of 1, 50, 000 customers by March 2011.

Also, commenting on the launch, Mr. Pankaj Chandra, Chief Lead- Online Movie Rentals, said, “With the franchise route we aim to focus on the core aspects of our business and also reach as many people as possible and satisfy their overall movie entertainment needs. We have done intense research with regards to the movie watching habits of the population in these cities and have fine tuned basic requirements like content, pricing etc so as to cater to their requirements at best. Also, coupled with our constant urge to provide seamless experience of watching movies at home and aggressive marketing strategies planned for these cities, we will for sure meet their entertainment needs capturing the minds of the common man.”

BIGFlix Movie Rentals by now has 10 franchise stores in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chandigarh, Faridabad and Panipat and will start operations once they have their respective logistics partners finalized for these cities.

Notes to Editor

About BIGFlix Movie Rentals

BIGFlix.com, a part of Reliance BIG Entertainment, is India’s largest online and offline movie rental service, offering access to more than 21,000 titles. BIGFlix offers the biggest range of premium quality home video content spanning across 13 Indian as well as International languages. BIGFlix.com currently has a vast membership base of around 1,00,000 customers in the country. The service offers the biggest, widest library of films and other alternate content through multiple interfaces i.e. retail stores, online home delivery service and call centre. The service is available at affordable prices and offers option to view unlimited movies on subscription basis. With the aim to reach out to Indians of all age groups the world over, as the one entertainment hub to provide cutting-edge, world class digital content from the world of movies, TV serials, music and other short form content.

BIGFlix currently has a retail presence of 60 stores in 9 cities namely, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.

Tags:BIGFlix Franchise, Movie Rental Franchise, Video library franchise, Store Franchise, Master Franchise, Franchise Plans, Franchise Operations, franchise model, reliance franchise,new franchise.

The Preschool Franchise Business Industry Estimated at 4000 Cr Getting Organized.

2010-06-15T04:24:00.000-07:00

How should you venture into this business currently worth Rs 4,004 crore? Estimates are that by 2010 this business will address 126 million tiny tots in the country!

Did you know that around 50% of a person’s ability to learn is developed in the first four years of their lives? Lina Ashar, founder of Brainworks and Kangaroo Kids Education, elaborates,

This is a critical period in a child’s life when specific types of learning take place. The brain is especially receptive to stimulation in the area of language, for example, during the first three years. Therefore, children that are exposed to speech (talking, reading, singing, etc) on a regular basis, exhibit language skills that far exceed those with little verbal stimulation.”

Lina, along with many specialists in the educational field are now pitching this concept and stressing towards the importance of preschools in a child’s life. Even parents are realizing the significance of building a foundation for their kids, thanks to tough competition that exists nowadays with regards to school admissions. They no longer resort to the neighborhood play schools or day care centers but are on the lookout for preschools with a reputed name and infrastructural facilities for their child’s overall development.

Several preschool chains have already opened up in the past few years to cater to the requirement. But with around 126 million children expected to be in the age group of 0 to 4 by the year 2010, according to the United Nations Population Division, the demand for preschools in the organized segment could be on the rise like never before.

A Rs 4,004 Crore Industry
According to reports by brokerage firm CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, the preschool industry in the country is currently estimated to gross about Rs 4,004 crore ($985 million). The report also indicated that the largest chain of preschools in India comprises of just 550 schools, less than 4% of the total market potential of 15,000 preschools.

This is primarily because most preschools in India fall in the unorganized sector. Says Lina, “The business of running preschools has tremendous potential in India as it is still highly unorganized and often lacks a standardized curriculum, infrastructure and quality. Given that it is lucrative, and there is still a quality gap, there is scope for several organized players to get into this business.”

According to Sarita Sayal, Director of Mother’s Pride, which enrolls around 10,000 children annually, “Driving this growth are several social factors, like the increasing number of double income nuclear families who desire to enroll their kids in the best of schools and fear losing out on the rat race.”

Setting up the preschool
The business is said to be low on investment and high on returns, with a break-even period within the first two years of operations. “If one plans to use the franchising model only, the investments are lower, since you only need to spend on curriculum development, nationalized marketing and teacher training. Starting your own school, however, is more capital intensive, since the cost of property refurbishment, toys and other equipment is high. Excluding brand building costs, we can safely assume around Rs 15 to 20 lacs per school,” says Lina. Trishna Kids, a preschool chain launched in Hyderabad, just about a month and a half back by Triumphant Institute of Management Education (TIME) is looking at an investment of around Rs 30 crore for around 200 schools over the country in the next three years.

Playing equipment, teaching supplies, interiors and transportation for children are significant investments. Besides this, one also has to pay attention to qualified teachers and staff. Says Jayesh Nair, Head of Trishna Kids, “Often, the quality of teachers suffers if the franchising model is adopted. To deal with this, we only appoint teachers who are well experienced and qualified in dealing with children. We have a separate team that trains teachers throughout the year to keep them abreast with teaching techniques” says Jayesh.

Many preschools also invest in a day care for children. Most schools that are running such centers get any where around 50 to 100 children annually, from both within the school and outside. Madhulika Bhupatkar, Director of Little Pearls, an initiative by the house of Pearl; which also runs the Pearl Academy of Fashion, says “A day care center is definitely a secure option for many working parents. Our day care provides all the facilities that a child would typically require throughout the day. It is equipped with a sterilizer, refrigerator and microwave to cater to these needs. A full time nurse for the babies ensures that we have a well-trained personnel taking care of them.”

Apart from academics, parents are also paying a lot of importance to extra curricular activities these days, wanting their kids to pick up an instrument, dancing or a sport as early as possible. Therefore, investing in an activity center that has programs in dance, music, art and craft, drama and speech, storytelling and other outdoor games for the children is of utmost importance.

So, could setting up daycare or activity centers be an opportunity in itself? Possibly. But as Sarita puts it, “Running a day care is a very delicate business as the children involved are very young. It is best if an entrepreneur joins hands with a preschool. He can make use of its experience and also get business easily.”

Last, but not the least, according to AL Deivanathan, CMD of Apple Kids Education, a considerable chunk of your initial investment should also go towards generating brand awareness. “Besides advertising in newspapers, we also advertise in magazines like Woman’s Era and channels catering to children like Cartoon Network and Pogo.” Depending on how well the business is doing, you can cut down on this cost over time. This is because a majority of the parents depend on word of mouth (i.e. other parents) while selecting a preschool. If your reputation is good and you manage to generate a positive word of mouth, the word spreads easily.

We also got in touch with some parents to tell us about some of the other requirements while selecting a preschool. Rakhi Pathela, a housewife, whose son just passed out of Mother’s Pride this year says, “Finding a school that was in the neighborhood was important.” Bimal Uppal, a police officer, with a working wife, also agrees, “The only thing that stopped me from sending my daughter to one of these schools is the distance factor. I didn’t feel comfortable about sending a three-year-old so far away from home and eventually settled for a playschool close to home.” Jayesh also seconds this notion. “No one wants to drive for an hour for a three-hour school. It doesn’t make sense.” Therefore, ensure that you choose the right locations to set up your chain of preschools.

Both Rakhi and Bimal also stressed on the importance of large and spacious classrooms, as well as outdoor areas. “Most preschools as of now are within the four walls, with not enough space attributed to an open area for the kids to play and move around. This is extremely important for the child’s overall grooming,” says Jayesh.

Following the franchising route
Like many existing preschools in the organized sector, you can also adopt the franchising model to achieve rapid growth. Also, as more and more parents are on transferable jobs, this would ensure that the child just has to shift to another branch of the preschool, rather than leaving it.

“Franchises enable not only sharing of expenses, but also knowledge, experience, brand image, as well as technical expertise,” says Deivanathan.

While on the lookout for franchisees, most preschools have a minimum land requirement of around 1000 square feet and a franchisee fee of anywhere around Rs 4 to 40 lacs, depending on the location. The royalty fees, which is on the total fee generated by the school in a year, can range anywhere between 15% and 30%.

After selecting a franchisee, ensure that there is a similar ambience, supplies and infrastructure in all the centers. A training program for the franchisees should be set up for this. Apple Kids, that has over 160 centers all over India and claims to be the largest preschool chain in South India, provides its franchisee with staff recruitment and training, transport, gymnasium, effective promotional material and even takes care of advertising. It also provides books, uniforms, shoes, activity charts, school bags, crayons, diaries, lunch boxes and water bottles to the children. “With an investment of Rs 6 lacs and annual loyalty fee of 30%, we set up the entire school just within ten days,” says Deivanathan.

But entrepreneurs should be very alert when following this model, because it might just appear that with such little investment requirement for franchisees and the desire to scale up rapidly, the quality of education will most likely suffer. Jayesh’s advice with regard to this model is, “Ensure that the prospective franchisee has enough experience in the educational field, has reasonable financial resources and has a passion for working with kids. Since, the franchisee doesn’t deal with the company directly; it could lack quality and a professional approach.”

Having a different approach
With more and more players looking to get into this business, attracting potential clients towards your school can be a difficult task. So, how can this be dealt with? Simply put, like any other startup, either do something different or do some things differently!

Trishna Kids, for example, can boast of their quality of teachers that have been well experienced in teaching for over seven years.“The reputation of TIME itself as a leading coaching institute for competitive exams such as CAT, GRE and TOEFL, sets us apart from the rest,” says Jayesh. Apple Kids, on the other hand, boasts of its ISO 9001:2000 certification from International Certification Services, accredited by the joint accreditation system of Australia and New Zealand. “Our curriculum, syllabus and methodology are at par with the international standards,” says Deivanathan.

When asked what sets Mother’s Pride apart, Sarita says, “Our founder Sudha Gupta did an extensive research on the psychology and needs of children before chalking out a scientific curriculum. That is the reason we constantly innovate and stay abreast of all other schools. Not only children but parents are also educated about parenting through books and seminars. We invest a lot of time, energy and money in research and development.”

Little Pearls also knows exactly how to attract those little delicate darlings to their school. Their school has a doll house, kitchen and a children dress up room. “We also look at holistic development through well-planned activities such as art and craft, yoga and taekwondo and computers. Each of these activities helps the child develope motor skills as well as creativity and imagination,” claims Madhulika.

Lina claims that Brainworks has one of the most compelling value propositions in the industry today. “Firstly, we have a strong understanding of the preschool business, thanks to Kangaroo Kids and have partnerships in key areas such as book publishing. Secondly, we have our professional management team, Better Value Brands, which is in place to spearhead this venture. Last but not the least, we have the marketing and creative strength of Star TV channels, as they are our media partner.”

Looking at the Challenges
One of the biggest challenges that this industry faces at the moment is awareness amongst the parents about the importance of preschool education. “Parents usually plan, research and save up for their child’s higher studies but not preschool education,” says Sarita. Parents are not convinced about shelling out Rs 35,000 to Rs 50,000 a year on preschool education.

Generating brand awareness and trust can also pose as a challenge. “It took me at least three years to make parents believe in our service. In India, everyone wants their kids to know everything at the age of three. If the neighbor’s child knows 20 rhymes, they expect their child to know the same. Since we aren’t following the traditional curriculum and are following an integrated method of education, it was hard to convince parents at first,” says Deivanathan.

We also asked Madhulika of Little Pearls what has stopped them from branching out so far. “I think the challenge we face today is the availability and readiness of quality teachers to be a part of such a setup. Preschool education requires teachers to have very specific competencies apart from an inherent passion for children; thus making it a rare combination to get.” Keeping the teacher student ratio low (around 1:10) so that every child can get individual attention could be tough when there is such a scarcity of qualified teachers.

So, how can you deal with this problem? Many housewives with MBA, B.Ed or a PhD degree can make good teachers, provided they get the right training. You can also tie up with teachers teaching in primary or secondary schools, to work with you on a part time basis.

Tags:Brainworks, Kangaroo Kids,Mothers Pride, Franchising Model, Trishna Kids,Little Pearls,Apple Kids,Preschool Franchise, Education Franchise, school franchise, Kids Franchise,play school franchise, day care franchise,

Kaati Zone, India's First Kaati Rolls Franchise Outlet Opens at Hebbal, Bengaluru.

2010-06-14T02:03:00.000-07:00

Bengaluru, 9th June 2010 : Kaati Zone, the first Indian fast food chain in India specializing in Kaati rolls opened its first franchise outlet at Kempapura main road, Hebbal, Bengaluru.

The brand new outlet has a seating capacity of 40 and offers dine-in, take away and delivery service to the customers. The spacious 1,200 sq ft restaurant is situated behind the Esteem Mall, near Sindhi College, in Kempapura, Hebbal. The interiors and architecture has international standard and style.

Speaking about the franchise business model, Kiran Nadkarni, CEO Kaati Zone, says "Kaati Zone is strongly differentiated in the marketplace as the only QSR brand offering Indian foods. Over 14 own restaurants in different environments, we have proven the viability of our concept. A franchise of Kaati Zone restaurant is an attractive proposition as a business idea for entrepreneurs and to generate superior returns on their capital."

Moutushi Mallik, the Hebbal Kaati Zone franchisee says, "Owning a business was a dream for many years and I looked at several options. After a lot of research, I zeroed in on Kaati Zone. The cuisine and the concept are perfect, and the company has years of experience to back my venture and a professional team to guide me at every juncture. I am very excited as the Kaati Zone business opportunity is a great fit for the change in life I was looking for."

Kaati Zone restaurants & kiosks are designed based on global trends in quick service restaurants where customers can grab a quick bite. The outlet offers the full range of items offered by Kaati Zone including Kaati Rolls, Sides, Salads, Parathas, Rice Meals, Desserts and Beverages. The outlet is open 7 days a week from 11:30am to 10:30pm.

About Kaati Zone:

Kaati Zone is the first chain of restaurants in India that specialises in Indian quick service foods. The idea of Kaati Zone was conceived by the founders as a brand of Indian quick service restaurants for customers both within India as well as overseas. Kaati Zone offers healthy and hygienic food at moderate prices and addresses the needs of busy customers in different daily environments. Presently, there are 15 Kaati Zone restaurants in Bangalore & Mumbai located at strategic locations.

For customers who want the convenience of eating a meal at home or office, Kaati Zone provides free delivery service with a dedicated call centre. Customers can call 411-22-100 to get Kaati rolls delivered at their doorstep. One can also log onto www.kaatizone.com for online ordering.

Kaati Zones in Bangalore

Church Street - S&B Towers , opposite Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank - ADCB

Indiranagar - 80 ft. Road, opposite 12th Main , adjacent to Planet M

Hebbal - Kempapura Main Road, Kempapura

Bangalore International Airport, Devanahalli - Near arrival gates

Koramangala - 5th Block, near Jyoti Niwas College and Opposite Empire Hotel

Malleswaram - 8th Main near 19th Cross, adjacent to BPCL petrol station

Banashankari - 2nd Stage, opposite BDA Complex

Total Mall - Sarjapur Road

Embassy Golf Links Business Park - Intermediate Ring Road

RMZ Infinity Tech Park - Old Madras Road

RMZ Ecospace Tech Park - Outer Ring Road

Dell Campus - Intermediate Ring Road

Accenture Campus - Bannerghatta Road

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Source:Press Release, Admanya.Com, June 14 2010.

Cafe Business Opportunities Galore In India.Top Coffee Chains across the world lined up.

2010-06-12T00:37:00.000-07:00

June.11, 2010.At least three international coffee chains are preparing to enter India, adding to a crowded market that is set to bulge some more.

The UK's Coffee Republic, Malta's Cafe Jubilee and Australia's Coffee Club Group have given mandates to retail consultancies in India to scout for franchise partners.

"We have identified real growth opportunities in India as (the) cafe culture is taking hold," said Tariq Affara, chief executive, Coffee Republic Trading Ltd. "We have international experience, a very strong brand offer, and we are excited and confident about our prospects in the Indian market."

More than 1,200 cafes have sprung up across India in the past decade, mostly from six organized chains, clocking an average annual growth of around 40 percent. They have made the cafe industry -- currently capped at Rs1,000 crore -- one of the fastest growing organized retail segments.

Chains such as Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) -- which recently acquired Czech label Cafe Emporio -- Barista and Costa Coffee plan on opening hundreds of outlets in major cities over the next two-three years, pinning their hopes on the deep pockets of India's growing class of young professionals and students.

According to industry estimates, there is scope for another 5,000 or so outlets strategically located close to offices, colleges and shopping malls.

That's the space the foreign chains want to tap.

Coffee Republic is working with consultants to identify a partner who can expand its business across India. Affara didn't name the consultant.

Cafe Jubilee and Coffee Club Group are working with New Delhi-based consultancy Franchise India Holdings Ltd for strategizing their entry into the country.

Starbucks Corp., the world's largest coffee retailer, is also eyeing the Indian market, after having dropped the plan a few years ago following some regulatory hurdles.

"At some point in the near future, we will make the right announcement and the right partner in India," chief executive Howard Schultz had told Reuters in April. "We are enthused about India."

The country is a big draw for international cafes, four of the six organized coffee chains in India being foreign players.

"It is important for the global players to drive strategies by making the campaigns more product-centric than the destination, in addition to the given mandates to flourish in India," said Gaurav Marya, president, Franchise India. "This poses a huge challenge to bring the required shift in Indian consumerism."

Their biggest challenge will come from India's largest cafe chain, CCD, which has 917 outlets in 150 cities and towns. It is looking to launch another 200 cafes to add to its presence on highways and inside malls and corporate offices by March.

CCD also plans to open 100 lounges in Mumbai, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Chennai to add to its single lounge in Bangalore, as well as Coffee Day Squares in major cities.

"With lounges, we hope to address young professionals who grew up on CCD and want to indulge a lot more," said K. Ramakrishnan, president of marketing.

"It's a market that needs to be created. Geographical expansion has huge possibilities. Cities are not saturated yet and the market is not limiting at all," he said.

Barista Coffee Co. Ltd, India's second largest organized cafe chain with 210 outlets, plans to launch 40-45 outlets a year in the next two-three years.

It will be followed closely by Costa Coffee, the UK's largest coffee brand, which entered India in September 2005 through an exclusive franchisee tie-up with Devyani International Ltd.

The company has opened around 50 outlets in northern and western India, and plans to invest Rs250 crore in the next four years to take its store count to 500.

But experts point out the chains are targeting the same locations and clients, with little other than price to differentiate them.

Clients agree. Prakash Chandra, a 25-year-old software engineer, said his loyalties don't lie with any particular chain, as he sat with a couple of friends, sipping from a Barista cup in Noida, a New Delhi suburb. "I go to these coffee chains very often. I go to Barista, I go to Cafe Coffee Day; anything will do for me."

Australian cafe chain Gloria Jean's Coffees, which entered India in 2008 through the Landmark Group's hospitality section, Citymax, positions itself at the upper end of the market.

The chain, which has 12 outlets across India, offers a premium cup of coffee at 10-15 percent more than a cup at Barista, which is priced at around Rs60. It is looking to add another 18 outlets by March. The prices at Costa Coffee are also 10-15 percent above that at CCD, where a regular cup costs Rs40.

"In the cafe business, it is a question of which market and segment one is targeting," said Pinakiranjan Mishra, partner and national leader, retail and consumer product practice, Ernst and Young. "One needs to see if they are offering value for that money. In future, it would become more service-led than price-led differentiation."

Outlet managers also say that with cafe chains vying for the same strategic locations, their sales are being affected. In Noida's Sector 18 market, for instance, there are four Barista outlets competing with five outlets of CCD, two of Costa Coffee and five or six small independent cafes within a radius of half a kilometre.

In Bangalore's Indiranagar locality, there are four cafes on a 1km stretch. "I wish they were not here," said the manager of one of the Indiranagar cafes, requesting anonymity. "Since they opened, we have lost at least 20 percent of our regular customers."

Tags:coffee republic, cafe jubilee, coffee club, franchise partners, retail consultancies, cafe franchise, starbucks, cafe coffee day, Cafe Emporio, barista, Costa Coffee, foreign chains,

Source:Mint,New Delhi,Deepti Chaudhury,Friday June 11,2010.