No longer just the domain of street bazaars and roadside vendors, India provides seemingly limitless growth potential for franchisors. With many of the world’s premier brands competing to secure their share of the emerging Indian middle class, Australian companies have a distinct advantage over the competition.
India now has the highest retail outlet density in the world with approximately 12 million retailers, outreaching even the Chinese. Just one example highlighting this phenomenal growth is Select City in New Delhi. Nearing completion, Select City will be one of the world's largest retail shopping malls with over 5,000,000 square feet of retail space (over twice that of Melbourne's Chadstone).
In a country where Twenty-20 cricket and Bollywood movies are closer to religion than entertainment, materialism and an ever-influential media are fuelling the attitudes, and the spending habits, of the increasingly affluent middle class. Amongst this new-found commercialism, the Australian ‘brand’ emerges as surprisingly strong. Our cricketers are household names and flood the airwaves with endless TV spots, our cities appear as backdrops in countless Bollywood blockbusters and while the Indian consumers’ love of all things Australian seems to have no end, many of our home-grown brands are taking full advantage. The Cookie Man, Gloria Jean’s Coffees, Just Cuts and LJ Hooker are just a few Australian companies staking their claim in the Indian market.
However, strong branding and product alone are not enough to succeed in such a saturated market. Companies using franchising as a management, marketing and distribution tool in India have shown time and again they far outstrip the growth and long-term returns of their non-franchised counterparts. Business systems that have been proven and refined in the Australian market are well placed to expand through franchising in India.
27-Aug-2008