Franchise Focus Business News…

Summer is a time that outs a smile on all our faces. With long days and packed suitcases it’s a few months of lovely weather that we all need before being plunged back into the frigid depths of winter.

Many year-long businesses see a surge in trade during the summer, and we’ve done a round up on the top summer franchises

1. Funky Tents

Summer is the official social season, and many people will choose to throw their weddings under the hot July skies. Many British women will remember the wedding in the marquee from Four Weddings and A Funeral, and Funky Tents specialises in providing tents and marquees for musical festivals, cultural festivals, and weddings.

2. DE Photo

Along with blushing brides, there’s quite the demand for photographers to snap the myriad of sports and social events over the summer. With a DE Photo franchise, you can help people remember the skin shining on their skin with some professional photographs.

3. Sporting and Dining Club

As with weddings and sporting events, social butterflies emerge from their wintery cocoons to mingle. Sporting and Dining Club franchisees organise dinner and dancing events with cameo appearances from leading members of the sporting profession and other elite socialites.

4. The Fat Pig Co

More town fetes, weddings, markets, and festivals have a hog roast on the bill than ever before. Although many aren’t quite sure about how to sling up a pig and roast it for hours. The Fat Pig Co provide a professional hog roasting service. Oink oink….crackle.

5. Hemsley Gardening

Spending so much time outdoors and in the garden we notice all those little jobs that need to be done. Hemsley Gardening ensure that lawns, flowers and hedges across Britain are perfectly manicured and all shiny for those summer evenings with a glass of Pinot Grigio.

6. Horizons Travel

Leaving for summer holidays, despite being somewhat tainted by Cliff Richard’s catchy jingle, gets everyone really excited. As a travel agent, you can help hook people up with their dream holiday destinations, whilst making a business and career for yourself.

7. Premier Sports

With sunshine beaming down, kids have no excuse to hibernate indoors with their Xbox. For parents who want their little darling getting their proper fill of Vitamin D and exercise, Premier Sports provides sports classes.

8. My Meal Mentor

The thoughts of the elasticated, brightly colored and unforgiving construct of the bikini can fill some ladies with dread. My Meal Mentor provides weight loss counseling, motivation and ready meals that will relieve bikini shame and get women happy for their holidays.

As the world’s leading franchise directory and information centre, we have a big black book of franchise consultants.

But what do they do? If you have come across a franchise or business opportunity that has taken your fancy, and you have begun to imagine yourself making tea in a mug that says ‘Boss’, it’s time to think about what a franchise consultant could do for you.

Franchise consultants can offer a wide range of independent services, including general business advice, financial assistance, legal services, franchise seminars and marketing consultants.

Some of these consultants will work more with franchisors, potential franchisees can take advantage of the following:

Legal Services

As a franchisee, a core component your business will be built on is the franchise contract. In the UK, there is no specific legislation in place to govern the franchise industry, and therefore your contract will be governed by standard contract law. It’s vital that any potential franchisee seeks legal advice before signing the contract, as it is a legally binding document.

Although there is no franchise law, there are many solicitors and legal professionals who have built their career within the franchise industry, who would have specialist knowledge of how particular clauses can affect the day-to-day running of a franchise business.

The franchise solicitors can also assist you in negotiating with the franchisor, which occasionally happens.

Find a Legal Consultant

Financial Assistance

Many potential franchisees will be approaching starting a business with only a portion of the minimum investment required. Whilst some franchisors can arrange franchising through high street banks, or can agree financing terms with the franchisor themselves, it can be valuable to  seek the opinion of a financial professional. They can advise you if you could get better value financing from an alternative source. They can also help with initial projections and financial planning.

Find a Financial Consultant

Business Consulting

Business consultants can provide advice relating to specific industries i.e. the travel industry, and offer potential alternatives  and ensure you’re entering an opportunity that suits your personality and individual requirements.

Find a Business Consultant

Food is the fuel of life.

Throughout economic highs and lows, people still need to sleep, wake, make love and eat.

The agri-food industry is worth £182bn, with 14% of Britons employed in the sector*.

Franchise Direct lists over forty of the world’s biggest and best known food franchises, including the traditional fast food chains McDonalds, Subway and Pizza Hut, and younger opportunities with a focus on health and corporate responsibility including Just Falafel, Lavazza Espression and Crepe Affaire.

The food industry is facing challenges, including the consumer demand for “health, nutrition, provenance, localness and authenticity”*, but is set to grow throughout the remainder of 2012.

This week throughout Franchise Direct UK we’ve been taking a special look at the food sector, and how the future is shaping up for possible franchisees of food businesses.

We’ve rustled up the finding of leading industry publications.

*Food Statistics Pocketbook 2011 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Office of National Statistics

---

• The agrifood sector 7.1% national market sector GVA in 2011.
• 14% of the working population employed in food sector
• Productivity rising since 2002.
• Total expenditure of food, drink and catering £182bn in 2010
• Food sector grew by 35% between 2000-2010.

Quality improvements will continue to be an issue - despite rising food prices, consumers are accepting higher prices.

The average British person spent £33.04 per week on eating out, 26% of their total food spend.

Food and Beverage 2012 Industry Overview by Deloitte “An appetite for change”

---

• All brands need to “go green”, with consideration for environmental concerns
• The efficiency of management practises will become a focus for cost saving as food prices continue to rise.

Market Opportunities

There’s room in the market to attract more affluent consumers away from homogenous supermarkets

• Need to promote good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle
• Consumers have become deal seekers, cherry pickers and foodies.
• More working parents, healthy ready meals and casual dining will become in demand.

Consumer Spending

• Consumers eat out in restaurants (80% of the time) and pubs (50% of the time).
• After this coffee shops 35%, sandwich bars 26%, fast food outlets 25% are the most popular.
• Only 17% of people will use work canteens

Conclusion

---

Both reports found that the food industry will continue to grow, and there are growing opportunities for businesses and business owners with a focus on the following key areas:

1. Priority for customer service
2. Customers still love brands, and brand image is vital for manufacturers and retailers alike.
3. Very important to get the basics right.

With a food franchise, the brand is a well known one, with set images and procedures in place.

The investment level for food franchises vary more than investment levels for most other sectors, due to the variables involved. A restaurant with premises will inevitabley involve a larger investment than a sand which delivery business.

If you’re interested in starting a food franchise, this is the week to take a look around and investigate!

Want to read more about the Food Franchise industry? Read our Tips for Starting a Food Franchise

Venice, March 25th to 26th 2012

When are franchisors looking for international expansion it can be a big headache to find the right national master partner in foreign countries. There are several possibilities to find those candidates in foreign countries but all with pro and cons.

A franchisor could travel to all these countries he is interested in one by one. The Franchise Pool International management tried to solve this problem and arranged a meeting under the title ‘Global Master Franchise Forum’ in Venice Italy. As representative for Germany/ Austria - Marco Hero and Olaf Bikker conducted the negotiations in Venice.

In the prestigious Hilton Hotel Molino Stucky in the lagoon city of Venice FPI invited all partners with their colleagues and 23 franchisors to present their franchise concept. Altogether over 50 people attended this forum – the first of its sort.

On one hand the FPI partners presented their services and their country to give a better understanding of the national situation and altogether it was a demonstration of the diversity in Europe. On the other hand the brands had the opportunity to present their concept to the FPI partners who are interested
to sell their concept in the respective country. In 2 days everybody also had a wide range of individual meetings with each other. At the end each brand found the right approach for all countries they plan to enter.

As a follow-up event the FPI group now plans a so called ‘Road-Show’ with buyer’s conferences in 5 European cities which will be held in November 2012. In one week the franchisor get the opportunity to contact potential candidates, investors and master prospects in 5 European cities. Even the number of prospects in each city is limited but the result will be phenomenal due the qualifications of such attendees.

All in all the participants of this forum in Venice where very enthusiastic about this idea and gave top grade in their final evaluations about the new and easier way to enter European markets.

In some countries you can go direct and put an ad in a trade magazine or a franchise portal. The question is the cost effectiveness and efficiency? Ads in franchise publications are expensive and not many people react on that. To put a publication in a franchise portal might be the right way for searching single franchisees but master prospects rarely check the internet for such opportunities. To be present on a franchise exhibition also is a venture with an unpredictable performance. In other countries one can work together with a national franchise broker but how efficient are they and where to find the right
broker?

Franchise Pool International found a solution to help such franchisors looking for master partners in Europe. Franchise Pool International is a cooperation of franchise brokers located in 10 different countries but covering over 25 countries they work in Europe. At one blow and with one contract the whole group could help the franchisor in 25 countries to search for master partners.

Today we have a lot to celebrate. It’s Friday and the sun is (somewhat) shining. We’ve just launched our Facebook timeline, with a host of historical goodies in store throughout the history of franchising and of Franchise Direct.

This morning, as we were just about to launch our Facebook Timeline, we were looking back over how the business has grown, and learnt we’ve just received our 2 millionth application.

We have tracked the history of the industry right from Isaac Singer’s sewing machine franchise in 1858, to the opening of Burger King in Coventry Street, London to McDonalds in Manchester in 1986.

We’ve added screen shots of Franchise Direct through the ages, to give you an online visit down memory lane. Starting in 1998 (the year Google opened their first office in California), through the dot com bust in 2000, the timeline will give you tingles as you look back on how the internet used to look, feel and click. (We take no responsibility if it conjures up the awful memory of that death rattle your modem would make connecting to dial up.)

Right from the early days in our offices in Dublin 4, our Managing Director Sean McGarry wanted to put entrepreneurial minded people in touch with franchisors and interesting business opportunities. And that goal is still being fulfilled.

We only started keeping records in October 2005 (the year Youtube was born and we started viewing cats a different way), and by December that year we had made 10,000 connections between franchisors and those looking for a business.

By the following September of 2006, we had received 250,000 applications, doubling to 500,000 in May 2007. By Christmas 2008 we had broached the 1 million mark.

Curious about the history of franchising? Check our new Facebook Timeline