The UK Franchise Directory

Bosideng, which is one of the most famous menswear brands in China, is now planning to make its presence in the UK by launching a franchise. According to the plan, Bosideng will be launched in UK in October this year.

Already, Bosideng is being talked about in the UK, and it has made its presence felt in other big countries like US, Russia, Japan and Canada. It is expected to do well in the UK, as with other countries. Bosideng is based in Changshu, China. Currently, it has more then 4,000 stores all over China. The income from the retail sales of Bosideng was almost 680 Million Yuan in the previous year and is expected to increase as the franchises are being spread all over the world.

With the intention of expanding business in the UK, Bosideng has joined hands with UK based company Greenwoods, which has a franchise in the UK for business and leisure wear for men. The exact location for the launch of the Bosideng franchise in the UK has not been specified yet. If everything goes well, Bosideng plans to open 100 more stores in the UK as a part of its expansion plan after the initial launch.

The management and executives recruitment company, Antal International, has already expanded its business all over the world to different countries like the Philippines, Pakistan, Egypt and Ghana. Eleven franchises in the last 12 months have been launched in different parts of the world like London’s Docklands as well as Malta, Belgium and South Africa.

The progress made by Antal International Franchises is amazing. Up until now, the number of franchises on Antal International has extended to 45 franchises in 27 countries. Sarah Jones, Antal’s Operations Director, said this is the first time an international recruitment company has been launched in such a large number of countries.

Antal has received a huge response from the HR community of Egypt as such a wide range of options has never been available to them. Doug Bugie, the CEO, said that the speed of Antal’s methodology and the way of finding and placing talents especially for 25 to 30 year olds is not possible by any other recruitment company. The aim of Antal International is to be the leading human resource provider in most developing countries.

A franchisor needs to clearly define and devise a franchise business model, ideally by taking off with a pilot operation in the initial phase. A pilot operation is a company-owned outlet that is operated as a franchised outlet. Pilot operations give judgment of an operation in practice.

Due to lack of time and perhaps patience, a franchising business is often started these days without any pilot testing. This is more so when the proposed franchise business is related to an existing business activity and the franchisor keeps a check that it does not get copied by a third party.

A franchise business can broadly be established in two ways:

1. A franchisor having a well-established business looking to expand the network through business format franchising.

2. A newly formed firm, or even an existing firm that does not have enough experience in its domain of business activity, wants to penetrate it through business format franchising.

In either of the above scenarios, a business plan is a must, including knowledge of the products or services distribution model, proposed management structure and its competency for a franchise business.

For more information on how to franchise your business visit Franchise Development Services.

Simon Philips introduced popular brands like British Home Stores and La Senza lingerie to profitable markets overseas. The Scotland based businessman is now planning to launch Premaman in UK. Premaman specialises in clothes and accessories for mothers-to-be and children.

Premaman was founded in 1953 in Belgium. Now, it has 400 franchises in 45 countries all over the world. Mr. Philip who is the head of the franchises in UK and Ireland is hoping to start around 20 to 30 stores in Scotland. These stores would create employment opportunities for over 150 people.

In 2007, the UK children and mother to be clothes market was about £3.6 Billion. Premaman hopes to capture 10-15% of the market share in the coming five years through these stores. Premaman was launched in Dublin in Ireland two years ago and the process of expansion is still going on. Around 10 franchises are scheduled to be opened in Ireland and many are under the planning process for the next year.

Premaman is optimistic about its expansion plans and is looking for entrepreneurs and investors for its franchise. The franchisees would need to invest around £45,000 to £70,000 to set up the business. They can expect to break-even during the first year and experience a growth of 20% to 25% on an annual basis.

EasyVan.com, a brand new firm offering low cost van hiring service, has branded 80 Mercedes Vito Vans through franchise company Sign*A*Rama. EasyVan.com is a van hiring service start-up from Stelios, EasyJet’s founder.

The vans were branded using high quality vinyl graphics. The orange livery used in the graphics makes the vans attractive and eye-catching. The graphics were made at the Northampton store of Sign*A*Rama and were applied on the vans at the Tilbury Docks transit centre. Doro Tape supplied the vinyl used in the graphics from Ritrama’s L100 range. Orange colour, out of the 33 different colours available was the best match for the EasyVan.com vans. The deadline for the project was extremely tight and Doro Tape successfully managed to deliver on time.

As Mike Cook, from Sign*A*Rama Northampton put it, logistics was the biggest challenge for this project. Sign*A*Rama had just two days to get all the 80 vans ready at the Tilbury Docks location before their delivery to depots throughout the country. The team at Sign*A*Rama had planned properly for the project. They first got all the graphics ready and then a six member team applied the graphics on the van in a systematic order, six at a time.

The marketing director of Easyvans.com, John Sinke, said that he was extremely delighted in the way Sign*A*Rama branded their vans and met the challenging deadlines. Sign*A*Rama is the world’s leading sign franchise company.

There are two distinct approaches to becoming a successful franchisee. One is to choose the opportunity where others are already experiencing success and making money and the other is to think differently and opting for something drastically different. In the latter case, there is perhaps a lower chance of success, but it is a risk worth taking, of course, only if you can afford it or else you may wish to tread a more conventional path.
Whatever your approach, the key to success is to start with the right definition of your franchise business.  It should be defined in terms of achievable targets. This goal raises a logical and popularquestion, “What makes a lot of money?” and “What will make a viable target?”

Many budding business people try to answer this question in absolute terms such as making £50,000 every year. This is not the right way. It is wiser to define your targets in terms of return on investment (ROI).

For example, if you can invest £5,000 and get a return of £25,000 in a year, you are making ‘a lot of money’ on your investment by any reasonable standard of measure.

Mark White, a franchisee of SafeClean, is ecstatic after winning the prestigious “Franchisee of the Year” award for the year 2007. Mike topped the list of over 80 franchisees of SafeClean by consistently achieving the benchmark standards for customer service.

This is the 5th year for Mr White as a franchisee of SafeClean and he is delighted by the achievement. He credits this achievement to the business generated mainly due to word of mouth recommendations of his existing customers and repeat business from them. Mike says that it was never easy and required a lot of commitment and hard work from him as well as his wife and son.

He ventured into his family run business after working on a job earlier. He says that being focussed on customers needs has helped him develop his business to a great extent. By providing personalised services to his clients and setting higher standards of customer service, he has been able to give his customers peace of mind.

Mike covers the area of Spalding and Bourne. However, with increasing demand and work, he has taken a second van and extended his work area to Peterborough. Safeclean is a furnishing-care company built on the franchise model. It provides nationwide services and is recommended by leading furnishing retailers.

All the national-level finalists for the 2008 BFA franchisor award have been selected.
These awards are going to prove the high calibre of the members of BFA and also going to honour the most outstanding performers in the entire industry.

The theme set for the 2008 BFA Franchisor Award is “Now And Then, Five Years On”.
To be a part of this the applicants needed to demonstrate that how their business has been developing over the last five years. They can also nominate themselves in other two categories as the brand builder of the year (recognising franchisors who have added and supported values to their respective brands) and the award for enterprise (acknowledging those who have been into the creative aspects of business strategies so as to overcome the unusual odds or to gain success).

Brain Smart, BFA’s director general, said that the entries this year are of exceptional quality and every finalist should be very proud of themselves that they have reached this part of the competition. The event is being sponsored by HSBC and Express Newspapers.

The finalists for BFA franchisor award are as follows:

• Pirtek UK
• Urban planters
• Oscar pet foods
• Prontaprint
• Taxassist accountants
• Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Clubs

Mike Goddard, Chief Executive, has been elected as the Chairman of the British Franchise Association (BFA).

Mr. Goddard, also the proprietor of Belvoir Letting, has been one of the strong advocates of the franchising business format. He has always actively assisted and supported BFA via various regional forums. He has been previously the Chairman of the Accreditation Committee.

As a founder and Chief Executive of Belvoir Lettings, he has always strived to make it as a major player in the industry. Since his early days, he has been an advocate of ethical franchising and business format so that the players can effectively exploit its niche market. Belvoir is well recognised within the community of business and franchising. In 2007, one of his franchisees won the BFA franchisee of the year award.

As a strong patron of BFA, Mr Goddard is committed to promote franchising as one of the major contributors in the business economy of UK. He commented after being elected for the post that he felt deeply honoured and was obliged to all his fellow BFA directors of the board and that he would put in his best efforts in facing all the challenges and promoting the franchise format.

Franchising does not have any specific tax implications; only general tax principles are applicable. All franchise agreements differ from each other in terms of the nature of business activity involved therein.

A franchisee is usually required to make two kinds of payment. First, he has to pay an initial fee amount for starting up the franchise business, and second, he has to pay a certain fee on the basis of his turnover or a mark-up for the goods purchased by him, to the franchisor. A franchisee always tries to make it a point that he has to make the least amount as possible in tax in regards to these two payments. However, the least favourable position for the franchisee would be when his payment for the initial franchisee fee is considered a capital payment, due to which no capital allowances would be available and further payments would be treated as a royalty, payable in accordance with tax deduction.

The franchisor usually agrees to initial fee allocation in the tax beneficial way for the franchisee, since all received payments by the franchisor are treated as trading receipts.

The initial franchisee fee also includes items related to the provision of know how, equipment supply, training, advice, and so on. While the apportionment of these items is commercially sound, the franchisee’s interest should also be taken care of. Apart from that, the continual franchise fees and mark up on goods or services as supplied by the franchisor are deductible as a trading expenditure of the franchisee.

VAT is generally payable on these two kinds of payments, as they usually relate to the provision of goods and services, which is again fully recoverable by the franchisee.