How are debutant franchisors gaining ground globally?

Franchising has a great relevance when it comes to leveraging entrepreneurial resources and building a strong growth in India. As per a study conducted by Franchise India, around 38% of the brands in franchise arena are debutants. Another interesting revelation is that a large number of these new entrants have already stepped into international arena.

Brands are of the opinion that franchising is an excellent and a workable idea if one wants to expand overseas. It is the best way forward. It makes it easy to secure trust among international customers with local centres. 

Tenacious Techies, a web and mobile application development company, adopted franchising from October, 2014 onwards. In order to cater to the growing demand of its products and services abroad, in both developing and developed countries, it has set up its office in Australia and expanded to Dubai, the UK and Saudi Arabia.
 
Jus Blouses has recently started franchising in 2015. Adhering to the demand of Indian ethnic wear abroad, it has forayed in the US. Varsha Mahendra, CEO and Creative Head, Jus Blouses says, “Since there are a lot of Indians staying in the US; all the weddings, functions, festivals are happening there. This has led to the requirement of Indian wear, specially the sarees, blouses, tunics and customised trousseau. Also the need for dresses for pre wedding festivities has gone up. To furnish this, Jus blouses opened a franchise store in Dallas.”
 
Going abroad the right way

A newly set up brand should earn recognition in the India. It should be able to set up a strong base in India before advancing into international market. Sharing a piece of advice, Jigar Doriwala, CEO, Tenacious Techies says, “We also started first in India and then expanded to other countries. This way the company knows all the fine points of running a franchise business before going into international market as there exist very high expectations.”

Challenging the myth

There prevails a misconception that international expansion is a tedious task especially for an Indian brand due to difference in business practices and policies. However, the success stories of the debutant brands have overruled this. Varsha of Jus Blouses concludes, “If the brand is based on a concept and the entrepreneur is aware of the market demand and plans to supply accordingly, the customer is willing to pay whether you are based in the international market or in your home country, even so if your brand is just at a nascent stage.”