Franchisee Way For Food & Entertainment

The Economic Times:

Times have changed from the moment Christopher Columbus set sail for Indian shores. But the temptation still prevails. Big-ticket retailers have already started unpacking here, but a whole new range of specialist food and entertainment chains are now discovering the potential of the franchisee model in India.

Considered to be one of the finest ideas of the last century, it still does not seem to have lost its shine. The role of these new entrants are not limited to just selling what they are known best for. They are also extending it to merchandising to include a range of memorabilia and extension of their product lines thus creating a whole new revenue model for themselves.

So while on one hand you have England’s famous football club Manchester United planning to kick off operations, there’s already a few others queued up to rake in the moolah. They include London’s hippest night club Ministry of Sound and America’s iconic entertainment chain Hard Rock Cafe. Indian players, too, seem to have taken a leaf out of the book of these well known imports with Percept Holdings launching a food and entertainment chain — Bollywood Cafe in Mumbai.

Take Manchester United Football Club (MUFC), for instance. It has around 70 million football crazy fans around the globe. They are ready to kick off the Indian operations with their Manchester United Restaurant & Bar concept.

With high-end sports bars and MUFC’s memorabilia capturing the club’s colourful history, the outlets promise to be a complete soccer buff’s delight. There would be mugs, tees, caps, balls and other merchandise that would complement the thought behind the brand.

But why India? Here’s what John Lim, CEO, Manchester United Food and Beverage, Asia-Pacific told SundayET; ‘India is a strategic country to help us grow in Asia-Pacific. We see a growing interest in soccer. We believe the country has to mature into watching other sports and the trend shows that India is following other sports like soccer, golf and tennis.’

Lim should know. In fact, people have already started following European league matches, UEFA and the FIFA World Cup closely, with UEFA and FIFA getting one of the highest TRPs in any game.

Lim takes the argument further. ‘How many cafes are there in the Asia-Pacific currently? We are new in this businesses and want to have a footprint in the entire Asia-Pacific. So we are working in all countries, practically simultaneously. We have a 10,000 sq feet restaurant and bar in Jakarta and a 3000 sq feet bar in Bandung, both in Indonesia, and are currently negotiating with possible franchisees in Korea, India and Japan. We estimate that for Asia-Pacific, India would contribute 30% of the total revenues.’

Anu Handa, India representative, Manchester United, F&B adds, ‘We are looking for franchisees with a minimum of 3000 sq feet area and the break even for each could be about 3 months.’

Full article.