Franchise Focus Business News…

Franchise Direct, the UK’s leading online portal of franchise opportunities, is excited to announce the launch of their Exclusive Franchise Direct UK Offers campaign. The campaign, exclusive to Franchise Direct, features discounts and special offers from some of the UK’s leading franchises, including APS Legal & Associates and Husse – the highly successful Swedish pet franchise.

The campaign has been established to encourage franchises to offer discounts to potential franchisees in the UK so that the level of new business start ups in the UK will increase. Unemployment levels rose in the first quarter of 2010, and it is clear that a stimulus is needed to spur more and more UK entrepreneurs into business. The campaign will last throughout the summer months and into late September and will feature discounted franchise opportunities from a diverse range of industries including business consultancy, web design, education and children’s fitness franchises.

During an economic low, franchise opportunities offer real career alternatives to individuals facing redundancy and unemployment. Working from a proven business model, under a recognisable brand, franchises have a higher success rate than independent small businesses. In conversation with Franchise Direct recently, chairperson of the International Franchise Association Dina Dwyer Owens described franchising as “the real economic stimulus plan”. Franchise Direct hopes that the summer campaign will enable more people to start their own business and keep the British economy working towards an economic recovery.

Speaking about the launch, Director of European Sales for Franchise Direct Brian Rogan said “we hope the campaign will make more people aware of the wide range of franchise opportunities available today. The discounted franchises for sale will offer individuals real opportunities to start their own business. Some franchises are offering two for one offers on their products, others are offering financing packages or reduced franchise start up fees.”

Budding entrepreneurs interested in browsing the directory of Exclusive Offers should visit the following link: http://www.franchisedirect.co.uk/exclusiveoffers/

Recently, I spotted this article in the Irish Times on food franchise giant – McDonald’s. We’ve known for quite a while how diverse the Golden Arches franchise are when it comes to their international operations and also how dynamic they can be in terms of adapting their menus for different cultural traditions and customs, and for their increasing awareness of healthy eating. So news that McDonald’s in Ireland are to completely revamp all 82 McDonald’s outlets across Ireland in the coming months, in order to incorporate their new healthier image came as no surprise.

Following controversy and negative media which resulted from a series of productions such as the SuperSize Me movie and the book - FastFood Nation, McDonald’s overhauled their image and menus. This has led to a number of other food franchises following suit including Domino’s Pizza, Subway and KFC. This hasn’t protected them from receiving criticism however. Michelin Star chef Anthony Bourdain has called McDonald’s “The Evil Empire” and has taken drastic measures to discourage his two and a half year old daughter against the franchise by demonising Ronald McDonald and is also threatening to “dip something decidedly unpleasant in an enticing chocolate coating and wrap it carefully in McDonald’s paper”, leaving this somewhere he knows his unsuspecting daughter will find it so that she can experience “an early, traumatic, Ronald-related experience [which] can only be good for her.” The first time I heard about Bourdain was when my brother, a chef, gave me his copy of Bourdain’s autobiography Kitchen Confidential to read. So yesterday when I saw Bourdain’s comments, I immediately contacted my sibling chef via SMS who replied “K*&b end. Can’t beat the occasional big mac. Been known to slip one past the lips”. He later went on to cook for 50 people on a fancy yacht in Sydney Harbour, but refrained from serving them Big Macs.

So, is it the view of all food snobs that if food is “mass produced” then it is therefore completely unworthy of consumption? In saying that, McDonald’s meat is 100% Irish which is saying a lot more than other burger outlets in Ireland. I would never suggest that a trip to your local franchise restaurant is anything like a trip to Maxim’s, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be an example of bad eating.

Some foodies seem to believe that franchises eliminate the creativity involved in creating food and lack the diversity that a stand alone restaurant can offer, as they change menus every week in some cases while franchises tend to stick to the same menu for a longer length of time with no deviation. However, a lot of franchises adapt their menus for new markets and often source food locally and only what is in season. My fellow franchise blogger Donny recently visited India and commented that McDonald’s, after issues with the cooking of fries in beef fat caused riots outside their outlets, have become quite culturally sensitive and feature a varied menu with no pork or beef to respect religious beliefs.

I think perhaps education and moderation is key, too much of something is never good and I’m pretty sure that even McDonald’s and Domino’s wouldn’t recommend eating their products every day.  Enjoyed as a treat every now and then, food franchises offer lots of families across the UK the opportunity to eat out as a family and to eat from a relatively healthy and low cost menu.

In comparison, it’s a well known fact that a significant number of gourmet chefs add unknown amounts of butter and salt to their food to add to the flavour, except you don’t know how much because that information is not freely available in restaurants, yet it is with an increasingly amount of franchises. Visit the website of most of the leading food franchises, and I bet you will find details of the nutritional information for their products, Subway in particular have been very proactive with this freedom of information tactic. Domino’s recently carried out focus groups in the US and used the feedback to redevelop their recipes, see the video below to see the redevelopment in action:

This week Barclay’s announced the initial roll out of their “contactless” method of payment for purchases of £15 or less, which is now available in two eateries in London – Subway and EAT. This new method of payment is exciting for small business owners, particularly within the food industry as it offers customers the opportunity to pay for their food quickly, without having to fuss with pins or signing for anything – simply place the card next to the contactless reader and off you go!

Julie Pottier, Services Purchasing Manager at Subway, believes that the future is contactless:

“Subway is proud to be involved with the first generation of contactless payments and pleased to be part of a payment revolution that is making life easier and quicker for consumers. Subway is sold on the innovation, and we now want to educate our customers that contactless exists, how it works and where they can use it.”

The method of payment will be especially appreciated during the lunch time rush, for those office workers who want to get their lunch and eat it while it’s hot and enjoy the rest of their lunch break. Subway have been outstanding in terms of constant innovation not just in terms of technology, but they have also really stood out as a food franchise which is dedicated towards offering a healthy alternative to traditional fast food. One of the first fast food outlets to detail the calorie counts on their menus, Subway has led the way in healthy eating and transparency between producer and customer, and the contactless feature is just another new innovation string to add to their bow!

What would you like to see your local food franchise introducing? Contactless, calorie details? Have a look at the video below to see Contactless in action!

With only three weeks to go to the kick off of FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa, football fever is taking over. England’s involvement has been tainted slightly with Lord Triesman’s resignation surrounding recent controversy; however June 11th is still on course to start the most exciting week in sport this year. With such a frenzy of global media, it’s not surprising that the franchising world wants to get in on the action, but who can afford to do so? Two of the franchises featured in our recent Top 100 Global Franchises list are major sponsors for World Cup 2010.

Both McDonald’s and Continental are featured sponsors for the biggest event in international football, but at what cost and benefit to the franchisee? Commercial sponsorship has been around since the launch of radio in the 1920’s and the introduction of radio broadcasting of sports events. The growth of this media acted as a launch pad for sports games, and helped to develop mutually beneficial relationships between sports teams/individuals and business brands. The benefits of sponsorship deals such as the World Cup are obvious for the franchisee as the exposure is enormous as well as helping with what marketers refer to as “eduselling”, or the association of a brand with an entity that attracts their target market, for instance Domino’s Pizza sponsoring Britain’s Got Talent TV show attracts their target market – young, TV watchers, who sit in on a Saturday night to watch their favourite show, and perhaps order in some pizza! Notably, Domino’s association with X Factor, another TV talent show saw a reported 8.6% rise in sales in the weeks coming up the final of X Factor. And for Ella Baché Paris, their sponsorship of Australia’s newest star, 16 year old solo sailor Jessica Watson has proven extremely successful, with their logo emblazoned across this year’s most pictured sails, even Jessica’s pink yacht was aptly named Ella’s Pink Lady.

To be able to sponsor an event as large as the World Cup however requires a significant amount of investment, measured with the large amount of exposure the brand will receive, which is why only big brands such as McDonald’s and Continental can afford to enter into such lucrative deals. For franchisees, this justifies the just as large investment costs in starting up their own franchise business. For instance in the UK, the minimum investment for your own McDonald’s restaurant, is as of today, £85,000, and this is on top of ongoing fees. For a prospective franchisee, the high cost on such a big brand franchise opportunity is justified when you consider the amount of brand awareness that comes with starting your own big brand business, as for low cost franchises, the franchisee will most likely have to build up brand awareness themselves.

So while Thierry Henry’s hand will be working very hard to stay away from the ball next month, most likely many many other hands will be reaching for that Big Mac following each of the matches. Are you lovin’ it?

The British Franchise Association (bfa) last Friday, announced the finalists for this year’s franchise awards. In their 21st year, the awards celebrate franchising across Britain and in particular, highlight individuals which the bfa believe have contributed substantially to the franchise industry over the last year.

2009 was a particularly tough year for the UK economy as it struggled to regain its foothold amidst the great recession, so the awards should be interesting in terms of who the bfa have been the “saviours” of the franchise industry during its toughest times.

Split into three categories, the finalists are:

Franchisor of the Year Award

• Auditel
• Autosmart
• Bluebird Care
• Domino’s Pizza
• Driver Hire
• McDonald’s
• TaxAssist Accountants
• Wiltshire Farm Foods

HSBC Franchisee Support Award

• Countrywide Grounds Maintenance
• Monkey Music
• Revive!
• X-Press Legal Services

Express Newspapers Brand Builder

• Cook
• LighterLife
• Smallprint

The finalists are a good mix of both international brands (McDonald’s and Domino’s Pizza) and homegrown British franchises (Auditel, TaxAssist Accountants and Bluebird Care), as well as a wide range of industries from food franchises, to care franchises and right through to white collar franchises in the business and financial sectors. Last year’s winners, Franchisor of the Year – Countrywide Ground Maintenance (gold – first), TaxAssist Accountants (silver – second) and Wiltshire Farm Foods (bronze – third) appear again, marking each franchise as a major player within the British franchise industry.

The winners will be announced on June 2nd at a ceremony in Nottingham and more on the awards can be found on the bfa Franchise Awards site.