Volksbank International: Franchising To Push Forward Expansion

Franchise Key:

According to a report in the Austrian newspaper, “die Presse”, the Volksbank International (VBI) is on the look-out for franchisees. Despite the current credit crunch, the report says, the bank is planning to increase its current profits from 70.5 to over 100 million euros. The company is looking to achieve this by becoming more active on the Eastern European markets.

The VBI is currently located in nine Central and Eastern European countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and the Ukraine). On these markets, the VBI not only operates its own branches but also has franchise-run outlets and bank shops in shopping centres. According to the newspaper report, Romania is its strongest market at the moment where it has 170 company-run and more than 100 franchise-operated branches.