Cashing in on consumerism

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: in India, the awareness in general has grown up. Also, people who always wanted to get into businesses of their own but didn’t have the means or awareness are taking the franchise business route.”

What is also spurring the growth, she says, is growing aspirations of people. Take, for example, the Live-in brand of jeans that she takes care of, “There are upcoming malls in every place. Jeans is aspirational clothing. It makes perfect sense for Live-in to be present in place like Meerut.”

What has also changed, says Gautam Sahni, director, franchise, US Dollar Store, is the fact that people’s aspirations have hit a new high. It’s for the same reason, he says, entrepreneurs are coming up to take franchises of a store like theirs. “I’d say we are present in metros but our real business is in Tier II and Tier III towns, where aspirations are sky high and people want to buy imported things for their homes.”

It’s a little surprise that they began in 2005 and today have 45 stores in 18 states. “From Kohima to Shillong to Dharampur to Solan, you name it and we are there,” says Sahni.

And it’s not one category that is growing when it comes to franchise business. There is horizontal growth across all categories. A pre-school like EuroKids International Pvt Ltd, for example, that began franchising in 2003 today has 450 centres across India and they are doing pretty well in smaller places like Rajpura, Jodpur and Patna. These little places today know a hip new way of education, thanks to the growing disposable incomes.

And if pre-school education gets the kind of importance that it does, it’s little surprise that a brand like Ferns ‘N’ Petals is making it big in say Kanpur, Dehradoon or Patna. Pawan Gadia, vice-president, Ferns ‘N’ Petals Group, explains that the franchisee businesses are growing in India is because they are providing budding entrepreneurs with a ready business. “See, we are cutting their learning curve. They can begin operations from day one and with a brand on their side. They have everything to gain.”