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Restaurants instead of fashion

When entering international markets, franchisors are often more active than other players in looking for "new special ways" of development, FCG agrees. For example, Canadian franchises never plant their own culture, but adapt to the local one, which is why many Europeans consider Canadian trademarks to be their own. According to surveys, few people know that, for example, BlackBerry and Cirque du Soleil are of Canadian origin. American – on the contrary, declare belonging to the culture of the USA and promote it in every possible way, Spanish – adapt to the mentality and features of the demand of end customers. "A special way", according to FCG analysts, is also needed due to differences in legislation, requirements of local authorities, specifics of sales, differences in customer habits. Against this background, the attitude of potential franchisees to exhibitions is also changing, experts say.

"Of course, the new time dictates new formats of interaction between potential partners," reports Anna Panyukova from JLL. "Everyone is trying to be as effective as possible in terms of managing personal time and partners' time. In communication, many people go online, and in work they consider a call without warning to be a bad thing. And if so   why spend the whole day to listen to 2 3 interesting presentations at those  exhibitions: this is additional time spent on moving and registration for the exhibition. It is much more convenient to view all the materials online, study at the appropriate time for this, and then meet in person only with potential partners who are most suitable for the conditions. We think that this can be seen by the reduction in the number of participants at international exhibitions: with time, online platforms for information exchange and concept presentations will become increasingly popular.

FCG retorts: franchising exhibitions have not lost their relevance, and it is during the exhibitions that franchisors and franchisees have the opportunity to learn about new trends in this area.

"Remote technologies do not provide opportunities for live communication between franchisees with different experiences from different countries of the world," says Natalia Chinenova. The most significant in Europe is still the Franchise Expo, the franchise exhibition in France, which takes place annually in March in Paris. In America, in the homeland of fran chaising, the popular and most visited exhibition Franchise Expo takes place in New York in June. Franchising exhibitions in China, Singapore and post-Soviet countries are becoming interesting. For Russian entrepreneurs, acquiring a Chinese franchise or entering the Chinese market with their own brand may be especially interesting, given the long-term cooperation of Russian retail with Chinese business. Moreover, in China, unlike the rest of Asia, along with the fast food industry, franchising in clothing retail is well developed.

According to the Golden Brand rating, a network of independent laboratories "Invitro" took the first place in Russia in terms of attractiveness and speed of market development. The second place is taken by the franchise of the production and sale of ice cream "33"penguin". In turn, according to Knight Frank, in the first half of 2016, the first stores of 25 international brands opened in Russia, which is almost twice as much in comparison with the same the period of 2015 (14 brands). Franchises in the service sector, production and social franchises have become much more active.

«Yes, the first place in Russia in terms of the number of active franchise offers is taken by catering establishments restaurants and cafes,  agrees Anna Panyukova from JLL.   This is This is due to the fact that the current market conditions in general are quite unfavorable for most segments: the fashion market does not feel very good, in the remaining segments there has already been more or less a market split between the largest players. A relatively noticeable revival in new concepts and formats is present in food retail.

According to Natalia Chinenova, despite the crisis, further expansion of international franchising into the Russian market is expected in the near future, and fashion franchises will increasingly have to compete with other segments.

"The franchise will develop more and more in the service sector," explains Ms. Chinenova. Franchising offers will also be developed in the areas of logistics and housing, then there are in those areas where the demand of the population and business is high, and there are very few offers. New franchise offers of local Russian operators will enter the market. Low-cost franchises in the range of 3 to 5 million rubles will continue to be in high demand. The leading positions will be taken by franchises that can best adapt to the needs of customers and maximize the quality of service.

According to Lika Kazieva, competitive management of ready-made projects may also gain popularity, however, Piquadro is not considering such opportunities yet. "I think there will be a kind of franchise in the field of virtual reality adapted for the training of government agencies, medicine, firefighters, gas workers, etc.," predicts Samvel Harutyunyan, General director of the portal ShopAndMall.Ru . – The educational franchising segment will also grow in ;overall».

Some players are convinced that the future of the franchise segment in Russia belongs to friendly alliances: there are projects on the market that have been thundering for many years, when the franchisee gets the maximum profit, and the franchisor comprehensively helps even in what it seems like he should not be doing (for example, defending the rights of a partner before the developer and the authorities).

Despite the fact that the most promising regions for franchising remain cities with millions of people, the segment will develop primarily at the expense of small towns. At least because for three years now, fewer and fewer companies have been giving franchises to cities with a population of over 500 thousand, preferring to go there on their own. In addition, in small towns, franchises are still particularly attractive to the non-resource-rich local community. And in this case, the most suitable area for launching a franchise project for those who have no business management experience is retail (minimum number of line staff, there is a simple pricing system and standard service). Business in the catering sector is more difficult to control due to the complexity of product production and customer service, business in the service sector is too tied to active sales and staff, excellent communication skills and the ability to select competent employees from the number of applicants. That is why, according to the estimates of the interlocutors, fashion in franchising will not give up its position for a long time.

Author: Ekaterina Reutskaya

Photo: Shutterstock.com