Australian franchises rate India higher than China, US

Melbourne, 12 October (UNI) The exponential growth of the consumer market in India has not escaped the attention of the Australian franchises as they view India a even better option than China and the US.

India, according to various speakers at a conference of the Franchise Council of Australia in Melbourne, is the most promising overseas destination to expand.

''There's not a great acceptance there (in China) or understanding of the world business format franchising relationship. They are in a chain-store sort of environment,'' Austrade senior export adviser Cheryl Scott told delegates at the four-day conference.

Besides numerous other strong points, India is stated to have the better prospect because of its 'political and legal climate'.

There are number of Australian franchise chains who have established footholds in India already.

Gloria Jean is one such business which has a firm focus on the Indian market which has, for Australian marketing brains, mind-boggling dimensions.

''India is perceived here as an enormous opportunity for us,'' Gloria Jean's Chief Executive Ian Martin said.

China is a market that clearly is developing, he further said and added that franchising will no doubt develop there exponentially, but the concept of franchising as we know it and the model is not what it could be in China right now.

Till now, Turkey has been the best-performing international market for Gloria Jean.

Among the Australian brands already established in India, Cookie Man, a cookie retail company, has been experiencing huge expansion.

The Australia-based company is reported to be planning to expand its outlets to 33 cities in India through franchising.

The company plans to complete the franchising network in India by next year. The estimated Rs 10,000-crore Indian franchising industry is believed to have 600 national-level players.

The ever-expanding industry reportedly operates through 50,000 outlets and employ about half a million people.

UNI