International Franchise Week inspires those in franchising from around the globe
On 13th – 17th March the bfa hosted International Franchise Week with delegates attending the World Franchise Council (WFC) and our International Franchising Symposium in London.
The week commenced with the WFC meeting which saw record breaking attendance, with 33 out of 44 present, this was threefold growth since the last meeting held in London in 2004. The meeting engages International Franchising Associations to discuss opportunities, threats and trends in franchising from around the globe.
A plethora of speakers at the Symposium shared their experiences of global franchising success. Aziz Hashim, IFA Immediate Past Chair and Managing Partner, NRD Capital, LLC, spoke about his passion for diversification in franchising, and shared his experiences of how he grew from a single unit franchisee to a highly regarded executive in the U.S. and international franchise space. Aziz is one of the most successful multi-unit franchisee operators in North America, starting with one location in 1996, he grew to become one of the top 200 franchise operators with several high-profile brands across a number of industries. He believes strongly that as leaders in franchising, there is a responsibility to ensure that there is a pathway for progression behind them, and believes that a key way to do this is to ensure that people are educated on franchising throughout their lives.
Christian Fruleux, International Developer at Decathlon, shared with us their story and the Decathlon vision for Global Expansion. Through their passion to make sport accessible to everyone, they looked at the why’s, who’s and how’s of their strategy, ensuring all areas were clearly defined before looking at the implementation. By researching different retail successes around the globe, they found that different store types succeed in different countries, and were then able to implement this into their plan; something that may not have been considered had the research not been done.
Our keynote speaker on day two was Water Babies founder, Paul Thompson. Sharing his experiences on how he set up Water Babies from an idea in his kitchen, to agreeing a Master Franchise agreement in China, he strongly believes that the ethos and people-centric values that they follow helps to empower their franchisees to succeed. Paul also spoke strongly about getting the right advice and getting it right on your home turf before going further afield. By talking to the experts, you may find out that a country that you thought would be easy to expand into, may be a lot more challenging than first expected.
Pip Wilkins, Chief Executive at the bfa said “With 24 Franchise Associations, 39 UK brands and 29 brands from around the rest of the world, it was a true International event, and a celebration of global franchising. Our speakers informed and inspired those in attendance in their own individual ways. Having received such fantastic feedback on the event, future symposiums may well be in the pipeline… Watch this space!”
