It seems to be a truism in franchising, that what the US industry is doing today, we’ll be doing in a year or so’s time. One trend which is accelerating there, is multi-unit single brand franchise owners, taking on additional brands. In this blog, I’m going to touch on a number of reasons for why its happening, and why franchisees in a similar situation in the UK, should consider going down the same route. Whilst I am focussing primarily on QSR operators, the principles are applicable across a range of sectors.
The first major benefit is diversification – I remember a year or so back when we had a health scare relating to beef (mad cow disease), burger sales dropped dramatically – if the owners of those restaurants had had, say a chicken concept to sit alongside their burger operation, the effects on their bottom lines would have been reduced considerably.
Its often possible to ‘leverage’ an existing management/support team – so that not only can a new brand be supported effectively from day one, but also the values and culture of the existing business transferred rapidly to the new venture. Full article.