Little Italy goes Franchising

Little Italy, the pioneers of Italian Cuisine in India, plans to open 10 new outlets in India. Out of the 10 outlets, 5 of them would be franchised and the rest, company-owned. Mr. Raj Mehta, CMD, Little Italy was positive about the expansion plan.

Currently Little Italy has 23 franchised outlets pan India and only 3 company owned outlets.Little Italy’s catering unit, which has grown to be a significant business vertical for the company, is largely managed from Mumbai and Pune.

Spice Group consolidates business, considers Franchising

Spice group is planning to consolidate its devices, retail and VAS business under 1 entity which will be called SPICE MOBILITY. The group plans to strengthen the presence of this entity through company owned outlets and franchise outlets.

According to the company officials, the company plans to have its presence in 7 cities across India-- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

The company targets consumers who wishes to buy a mobile handset of Rs 3000 and above. The company is looking for entrepreneurs to take up the franchisee of Spice HotSpot.

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Hotspot is, today, India’s leading multi brand retail chain in the technology space with wide presence across the country. Hotspot boasts of the widest range of mobile handsets, accessories and airtime options at competitive rates.

KFC to expand in Kolkata - Open New Franchisee

KFC Corporation (KFC), founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky in the United States.
KFC India already has 2 outlets in Kolkata and plans to open 4 more outlets through franchising with an investment of Rs. 30 cr. The company is soon going to launch its third outlet in the Mani Square food court in November this year followed by the fourth outlet in the Diamond City North mall in December.

KFC India also plans to introduce "wide range of vegetarian products" for its Indian arm.

Team India Managers Ltd, a complete franchise solution provider, helps setup franchise business for you.
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Did you know - KFC has been a brand and operating segment, termed a concept[2] of Yum! Brands since 1997 when that company was spun off from PepsiCo as Tricon Global Restaurants Inc.

Tata Motors Considers Franchising Route

Its a giant leap for franchising. Another multinational corporation after Airtel, Tata Motors Ltd now considers franchise and authorised dealership model to expand its sales outlets and customer care centres in the next few years.
Tata Motors which is India's largest commercial vehicle manufacturer plan to open 600 sales outlets for its small LCV's. They also plan to add 200 customer care centres which take the total centres from 800 to 1000 in the next few years. This would help the company service its ever growing consumer base.
This step by the company shows that they take the growth in the rural market (small towns and villages) seriously.

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For franchise details email at info@teamindiamanagers.com.

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Impresario Hospitality to expand brand MOCHA

Impresario Hospitality, who also operates 15-odd restaurants of other brands including Smoke House Grill, Salf Water Cafe and Del Italia, plans to take MOCHA to Tier II cities such as Ludhiana and North Eastern cities.

MOCHA currently operates more than 20 outlets in major metros including Delhi NCR, Bangalore and Mumbai.

The company is looking at tapping the upwardly mobile urban consumers in small cities who are on the loom out for brands in the estimated Rs 700 crore Indian organised cafe retail market. The new outlets would be a mix of company-owned and franchise operated.The Company is also giving a new touch to its menu by bringing in new beverages and dishes with Mexican, Italian and Moroccan flavors, said by a senior company official.

Mumbai-based Impresario Entertainment and Hospitality Private Limited (IEHPL), which is into restaurant business, plans to invest around Rs 20 crore by 2010 to expand its presence in all the metros through its brand Mocha, according to managing director Riyaaz Amlani.

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Refeel Cartridge's brain child ClubLaptop requires franchisee.

ClubLaptop is an initiative from India’s leading printer cartridge recharging chain, “Refeel Cartridge Store”, having a presence at over 100 locations across 70 cities.  Now they are planning to open 350 stores in the next 3 years. Currently it has 5 stores operating in cities like Navi Mumbai, Bangalore, Ghaziabad and Jodhpur, while another 14 will be opening by the end of this year.

For Club Laptop, a prospective franchisee needs to invest about Rs 4-6 lakhs with minimum space of 200 sq. ft. He can expect to breakeven within 3-4 months, while a RoI can be achieved within 12 months. Though the concept is new, there is tremendous potential in the country. Customers will get fast and affordable laptop repair and services. ClubLaptop stands out as a better alternative to authorized service centres, fast turn around time and world class service

The company is positive enough to be the market leader in providing complete solutions for laptop care and its accessories.

Contact - Team India Managers Ltd for a franchisee. 022 30266060/61
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Devyani International to open chain of bar franchisee across India

RJ Corp owned Devyani International, which has brands like Pizza Hut, KFC and Costa Coffee under its umbrella, is all set to serve hotter stuff by opening a countrywide chain of bars, a company official said.

The company plans to open 12 bars across India over the next two years. The bars will be branded under the name Foodie's Bar.

It has already opened the first outlet at New Delhi domestic airport and Mumbai airport will be its 2nd destination which will open by mid of next month. Two more will come up this year at high-street locations in Delhi and Bangalore, added by the company official.

Domino's India now eyes the Tier II cities for expansion

Domino's Pizza plans to expand to smaller towns in India. Boasting of a 65% market share in the Rs 1000 Cr Indian Pizza Market, the company is aggressive on brand building including increased spending on marketing and special offers.

In terms of top global markets for Domino's, India is currently ranked at ninth position.

Domino's currently has 19 pizza variants in the Indian market, besides five non-pizza items, including choco lava cakes and pasta which were introduced last year.

The company will undertake a major brand building exercise which will include substantial use of advertising, besides special offers.

Bhartia Group-promoted Jubilant Foodworks is the Indian master franchise for Domino's Pizza. Earlier this year, the company went for an IPO in India, becoming only the fourth subsidiary outside the USA where the brand is listed.

Hamleys first store opened in Mumbai

Hamleys first store in country is now open in Mumbai. Hamleys, is a 250 year-old toy retailer of the UK. The first store was opened in a franchise agreement with Reliance Retail, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Besides this, the company is going to open its next store in Chennai of 10,000 sq ft. in size. 

The company plans to invest Rs 150 crore in the next seven years to set up 20 more stores across the country, including tier-II cities.

Apart from stocking Hamleys merchandise, Reliance Retail will stock products that are exclusively available to the UK retailer. Other global brands from companies such as Mattel and Funskool will also be available at these outlets. 

The company is looking at spending around Rs 50 lakh on advertisement for the first store.

Yum Restaurants on expansion of KFC outlets in India

Yum! Restaurants India has plans to expand KFC in India. It plans to open 120 KFC outlets in 2010 with a investment of $ 20 million.

To celebrate KFC's 70 years of existence, the company said that they will launch a free sampling programme for customers. As part of this programme, 70,000 pieces of chicken will be sampled in more than 70 stores in 13 cities. It also plans to launch a new television campaign with Sharman Joshi.

After KFC and Pizza Hut, Yum Restaurants recently launched its third eatery brand, Taco Bell, in Bangalore. The company's further plans is to increase its outlet to 500 by 2015 for which it will have to invest around $ 300 million.

Liberty Shoes plans to expand in 2010

Liberty, major footwear brand in India plans to open approximately 60 stores in the year 2010.

These stores will be both company owned as well as franchised ones. With this the company store count will become 550 stores in 2010. The expansion of the brand is planned for across India, with more focus on tier-II cities and towns. Of 60 stores approximately 20 will be opened through the franchise route and the rest would be company owned.  

It is the is the only Indian company that is among the top five manufacturers of leather footwear in the world with a turnover exceeding US $100 million. It is also planning overseas expansion by foraying in countries like South Africa, Singapore, Middle-East, and Kuala Lumpur.

 

Rasna on an expansion spree

Rasna, a soft drink concentrate company plans to expand its fast food outlets (Devil's Workshop) by opening 56 new outlets by the end of December 2010. Devil's Workshop serves doughnuts, pizzas, slushes, milk shakes, smoothies, snacks and bakery products.

At present the company is operating 44 Devil's Workshop. It also has plans to enter cities like Mumbai and Hyderabad in the next nine months.

Out of 44 outlets, 25 of them will be opened in Ahmedabad, 14 in Gurgaon, and 5 in Pune. There are only 10 franchised outlets and rest are company owned. These fast food joints are in kiosk format with an area of 150 sq. ft. The company plans to open new outlets in malls, multiplexes, schools, and colleges and most of them would be takeaway outlets without elaborate seating arrangements.

 

Source: Franchise-India

Pizza Hut to open new delivery outlets

Pizza Hut is looking at opening 400 new delivery outlets across the country by next fiscal end. The first burst of the Pizza Hut new delivery outlets would kick off soon. These would include separate delivery outlets and delivery panels to be housed either in existing Pizza Hut dine-in formats or at adjacent locations.

 Pizza Hut has three formats, namely, dine-in, delivery and carry-out. It has 149 restaurants, and 135 delivery and carry-out oulets.

 

Source:Franchise-India

Uninor to strengthen its presence in AP

Uninor, a mobile telephony and network operator plans to set up 40 franchised outlets in Andhra Pradesh this fiscal year. The company started its operations at the end of 2009. Uninor is a joint venture between Norwegian telecom giant Telenor and real estate company of India, Unitech Group.  

Presently, the company has six company owned, 12 franchised, and 99 trade outlets in 23 districts, 423 towns, and 1,328 villages of Andhra Pradesh.

Unitech Wireless holds a pan-India UAS (Unified Access Service) license to offer mobile telephony services in various cities in India. At present, Uninor services are available in the eight circles of UP (West), UP (East), Bihar, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

 

Source: Franchise -India

Snap Fitness set its footprint in Mumbai

Snap Fitness, a US based fitness chain launches its first fitness centre in Malad, Mumbai through franchising. The company entered India with its first gym in 2008 in Bengaluru. Presently, the company supports 20 + franchised gyms in India.  

The gym that has opened in Malad is a 4, 000 sq. ft facility, will offer 24 hour fitness services. The company also has plans to open more fitness centres in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, and other major cities across India. The company is targeting at more than 30 gyms by the next fiscal year. All these gyms will be opened through franchise route.  

The company was established in 2004 in Minneapolis, USA. It is the fastest growing fitness chain across the globe with its presence in countries like Canada, Australia, India, and Mexico. The company also plans to set its trail in New Zealand and the UK.

 

Source: Franchise-India

Educomp to open 75 IIT Coaching Centres

The diversified education provider, Educomp Solutions Ltd plans to set up about 75 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) coaching centres pan India, by 2011. The company has announced the launch of India's first VSAT based Engineering Prep Programme. This programme will be delivered through an India-wide chain of centres called Leap. For students staying in remote towns and semi-urban centres, Educomp Leap will provide accessibility to the faculties spread over across India. These 75 centres will be both company owned and franchised outlets.

Last year, over four lakh students appeared in IIT-JEE and over 12 lakh appeared for AIEEE. While 80 per cent of these students take some form of coaching, a mere 20 per cent of them have access to the top 10 coaching institutes of the country. The rest have to be content with sub-standard coaching due to a variety of reasons, ranging from geographical constraints, cost implications and non-availability of high quality faculty.

Through effective use of VSAT technology, the LEAP centres will deliver standardised, high quality, and cost effective test prep. Keeping in mind the spend patterns in Tier II and III towns, Leap will offer test prep at a fraction of the cost to other centres.

Students at Leap centres will be taught by highly acclaimed and well known faculty. They will have access to high quality study material and a vast library of subject-related, digital teaching resources, and most importantly, video archives.

Shantanu Prakash, CEO, and MD, Educomp Solutions Ltd informed, "We are consolidating our presence in the supplemental education space, which is currently among the fastest growing segment, with an estimated market size of 8 billion USD in India alone. We have undertaken restructuring of our businesses recently and have created a new entity called 'Educomp Supplemental' for our supplemental education business which includes off-school services such as tutoring, counseling, and assessment. Post-restructuring, it will be India's largest supplemental education company".

He added, "Educomp Leap is yet another initiative which is in line with our mission of being a transformative learning enabler through innovative technology-led initiatives".

Educomp will open around 75 Leap centres in the current financial year, located across cities like Guwahati, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Varanasi, Allahabad, Meerut, Patna, Surat, Jammu, Patiala, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Agra, Gurgaon, Sonipat, and Ludhiana among others. By 2012 Leap centres will be present in around 200 cities across India. While this year the focus will be on the engineering test prep, plans to roll out other test prep products like Medicine and BBA from 2011-12 are also in the list.

 

Source: Franchise-India

Timex plans 20 stores in one year; seeks franchisees

Leading watch maker Timex Group India has announced plans to open 20 more stores across the country in the next one year. The group which has embraced the franchising model for expansion, currently has 70 stores in India, in both kiosks and exclusive outlets formats. 

The new stores will be opened through the franchise model. Besides metros and big cities, the group is now looking to increase its footprints in tier II and III cities like Guntur, Kakinada, Asansol, Hazaribagh, etc., with a population of more than one million. The other cities targeted by the group are the Delhi-NCR region, Pune, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and the like. 

Speaking at the launch of their 10th exclusive outlet in Bangalore, Gopalratnam Kannan, managing director, Timex Group, said: "We have extensive expansion plans for the coming year and will be increasing our footprints across the country, especially in tier II and III cities. We are also strategically expanding our product portfolio targeting the discerning Indian consumer." 

The company operates two franchise models -- kiosks and exclusive outlet (The Time Factory) formats. The space required for a Timex kiosk is 120 sq. ft with an overall investment of Rs 10-15 lakhs. While The Time Factory is spread over an area of 450-650 sq ft and requires investment of about Rs 20 lakhs, depending on the location. The franchisee can breakeven in a year's time expecting an RoI of 15-20 per cent. 

Timex Group designs, manufactures and markets innovative timepieces and jewellery globally with 12 brands in its portfolio including Versace, Nautica, Marc, and Ecko. 

Currently, the overall watch industry is expected to be Rs 3,500 crore of which 55 per cent comprises the organised market. Timex Group has a market share of 10 per cent of organised market. 

Timex Group reported a turnover of about Rs 132 crore in 2008-2009 fiscal with a profit of over Rs 7.56 crore. The profit was almost 37 per cent more than the previous year. Despite the recession, revenues in 2009-2010 grew at 3 per cent. The brand is now expecting a growth of 10 per cent in 2010-2011. 

 

Source: Franchise-Plus

McDonalds earmarks Rs 60 crore investment for marketing

McDonalds has announced the launch of new campaign for its happy price menu which starts with Rs 20 onwards. Termed as 'Har Chotti Khushi Ka Celebration', the campaign is design to position McDonald's as the ideal venue and platform for individuals to celebrate their little joys of life. 

"For us, it's not just a campaign line but the way of making our consumer's life more enriching - and McDonald's provides consumers a chance to celebrate 'har choti khushi' by offering dual benefit of quick service and affordable pricing. In today's hectic pace of life, 'har choti khushi ka celebration' needs to be a mantra for a fulfilling life," said Arvind Singhal, director marketing, McDonald's India (west and south). 

"We also have plans to launch a campaign for our meals such as McVeggi and McChicken this year. We also plan to open 40 more McDonald outlets this year. To market our new products and initiatives for consumers we look forward to spend across Rs 50-60 crore in 2010," Singhal added. 

Source: Franchise-Plus

M&B Footwear seeks franchisees for expansion

M&B Footwear, footwear retail chain, will expand its retail presence via the franchise route in metros, mini metros as well as smaller cities and towns. 

Some of the outlets will be operational before the end of the first quarter of the approaching financial year 2010-11. Most of the franchised stores will be in North, notably Punjab and adjoining belt, and East in the first phase, according to a report published in IndiaRetailing. 

"The franchisee route is being perceived as futuristic as it would ensure expansion plan. Our distinctive footwear brand portfolio, consumer insights and preferences and importantly, revenue and profit imperatives for the franchisees will secure a win-win scenario for both," quoted Vikas Bagga, VP, marketing and corporate affairs, M&B Footwear Pvt Ltd in the report. 

"The endeavour is to set up moderate to mid-sized Walk-in M&B stores, spread over 500-1,000 sq ft of carpet area, in premium malls and high street locations. Importantly, the property lease for nine years would have to be directly secured by the franchisee else the franchisee could offer and operate out of their wholly-owned premises," Bagga added. 

Within the approaching new fiscal, M&B plans to set up 15-20 Walk-in M&B outlets. The franchisee will have to invest close to Rs 10-15 lakh on fixtures and fittings and Rs 20-25 lakh in stock inventory, the report added. 

Currently, it has 41 exclusive concept stores, located in premium malls and high streets, 97 shop-in-shop with large format stores such as Westside, Pantaloons, Shoppers Stop and Central and 62 factory direct showrooms in India. 

 

Source: Franchise-Plus

Taco Bell ventures India

US-based fast food brands operator Yum! Restaurants launched its Mexican speciality chain Taco Bell in India with the first restaurant in Bangalore and said it plans to open up 100 outlets by 2015.

 Yum! Restaurants, which operates brands like Pizza Hut and KFC, said it is looking to tap the young consumer segment with Taco Bell's Mexican offerings as part of effort to increase footprints in the estimated USD one billion dollar Indian fast food market.

"We are confident that Taco Bell will redefine the eating-out market in India with its value proposition and variety of delicacies. We have already signed up a few more properties in Bangalore and our aim is to have 100 outlets in India by 2015," said Ashok Bajpai, General Manager, Taco Bell India.

 The company will first target the markets in metros and then venture into tier II and II cities and each restaurant will be around 3,000 sq ft in area.

 

Source: Franchise-India