Seekruit India’s First Recruitment Process Aggregator Platform Expands its presence

Virtual Recruitments: A New Era of a LOW TOUCH ECONOMY

With the pandemic affecting all our industries and modifying business and consumer behaviour for years to come, it is very evident that technology will play an extremely crucial roles in the survivability, sustenance, evolution and growth of businesses. All industries have to adopt Digital Transformation with utmost urgency and one of the industries most affected by this disruption is evidently the man-power driven recruitment industry. We foresee large aspects of the recruitment industry will go through partial or full automation using technology and digital platforms that will aid social distancing and reduce un-necessary human travel and human contact.

 At Seekruit, the mission is quite simple. In fact, it is not different from what all companies aspire for – to be the best at what they do. Seekruit HR Technologies Private Limited wants to establish itself among the leading providers of HR and Recruitment Services in India. The aim is to build rock-solid relationships with clients while delivering tailor made solutions and ensuring total satisfaction.

Seekruit thrive on a single-minded philosophy of “providing complete solutions to the patrons”. They provide total and transparent services to the clients so that they incur cost, which is to their benefit. This in fact forms the basis for Seekruit existence. Seekruit is focused towards providing different solution to  different hiring needs which makes them different from traditional HR service providers.

Their strength is the information and the knowledge base added to the experience of its people who are experts in the industry with a support of Technology can provide tailor made solution to cater all  recruitment needs. The company is strongly working on Data Management with a strong Big data team and use of artificial intelligence to provide strong database of right fit and certified talent. Seekruit is proud of the fact that the clients value their ability to deliver the right service for them.

There has been some initiation of using technology for recruitment however the scope of that has been very limited. In current situation, virtual recruitments are done through video calls over skype and other video calling apps which requires the hr and candidate to synchronise their availability at all time . This type of process has been challenging hence difficult to scale.

There has also been virtualisation that has tried to remove some of the stake-holders of the recruitment process like the recruiter, assessor, data team etc. and this is also not practical for a successful and scalable business model as each stake-holder has their unique proposition to the process.

Seekruit is India’s First career aggregator technology platform, which connects Corporate, i.e. who are looking forward to recruit the staff, and the candidate, i.e. who are looking out for a job.

US based EagleRider set to launch in India

US-based motorcycling experience provider EagleRider Inc  announced opening of its first franchise outlet in India here at the Capital. 

The company said domestic and international travellers will now be able to hire luxury motorcycles on self-drive and pre-determined guided tours or tailor-made adventure holidays within India and neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar.

"We all know that riding motorcycles is fun. But riding a motorcycle as you explore a legendary country like India with so much history in every mile and so many interesting things to see and do is an entirely unique and unforgettable experience," EagleRider Founder and CEO Chris McIntyre said in a company statement. 

"EagleRider is immensely proud to finally be able to make that experience a possibility for fellow riders across the World," he added. 

The store offers motorcycles, which includes a fleet of Harley Davidson, Triumph and Royal Enfield. The premium motorcycles can be rented on daily or longer durations. 

Depending on the model and type, the rentals for the motorcycle can range from Rs 2,900 a day for Royal Enfield Himalayan, Rs 5,500 per day for a Harley-Davidson Iron883 or Triumph Bonneville to Rs 12,500 a day Harley-Davidson RoadKing, excluding petrol expenses. 

Apart from tours, guided or for self-drive, EagleRider India also provides a host of services like shuttle services, guides and hotel stays, as part of the packages, the company said.

The Great Khali eyes gym chain

The professional wrestler Dalip Singh Rana, better known by his ring name The Great Khali, to flex his muscles at the gym, is planning to set up 50 gyms in India in a year and then look abroad. The USP being a combination of gym with fitness and wrestling.

‘’The theme of the gyms would look like a wrestling ring. As members enter the gym, Khali will greet them with an automated voice message. There will be a Khali gallery, which will display and sell merchandise like clothes and boots,’’ says Ankur Makan, Khali’s man handling the project.

To be launched as the The Great Khali Gym & Fitness Club, the large format gyms spread across 4,500-5,000 sq ft will come with unique features like a lounge, kids area, the Khali gallery, marathon track and usual ones like two spas, two Jacuzzis, sweat room, which can be used by 40-45 people at any given time. Users will have to shell out Rs 27,000-28,000 a year, which is similar to what premium gyms charge in Indian metros. 

Khali’s franchisees will have to invest Rs 3.5 crore in gym infrastructure, including approximately Rs 35 lakh sign-up fees to be paid to Khali. A franchisee will also incur variable costs of Rs 50-60 lakh a year, but can hope to make revenues of Rs 3.5 crore a year. ‘’Assuming a gym can get 700 members, it can make Rs 2 crore per annum purely from gym revenues. Plus, it could hope to make Rs 1.5 crore in revenues from the lounge, the Khali gallery, self-defence training for kids, zumba, aerobics, power yoga,’’ says Makan.

The lounge will sell food supplements like protein bars that sell for Rs 2,000/kg while the gallery will sell merchandise for wrestling. These are likely to be the two key non-gym revenues, says Makan. Every gym will be personally inaugurated by Khali. ‘’He doesn’t want to compromise on the service parameters like hygiene, personal trainers, and wants to ensure that it doesn’t spoil his name,’’ says Makan. 

The first gym will come up in Jaipur by January, and the second one in Delhi. Gyms in Tier-II or Tier-III cities will be smaller— these will have fewer machines, and one spa and one Jacuzzi. Khali is doing this project under Continental Wrestling Entertainment (CWE), his company which has set up a wrestling academy in Jalandhar in Punjab that has over 350 students. After India, Khali wants to open gyms in markets like the US, Canada and Dubai, where he enjoys good following.

Bata India to grow via franchise model

Shoemaker Bata India Ltd will slow down expansion of its own store network and hand out more franchises to tap into rural and semi-urban markets, a top company official said.

“This is something we have never done before,” said Rajeev Gopalakrishnan, managing director and chief executive officer of Bata, referring to the plan. “Currently, all our stores are company-owned.” He was talking on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the company.

Bata, which sells over 50 million pairs of shoes every year, has at least 1,265 retail stores across 500 cities. But lately, it has started experimenting with the franchise model: its partners have launched around 30 stores in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The initial response is encouraging, according to Gopalakrishnan.

Typically, Bata launches around 100 stores every year, but this will change as the company will now focus on expanding its distribution network through franchisees. Over the next two years, Bata aims to add 200-300 new stores under the franchise model.

According to analysts, this could, in the long run, turn out to be a more efficient model because Bata already has 7,700 workers. Opening new stores also means paying for real estate from its own finances.

A lot of companies are shutting loss-making outlets, which have high real estate costs, said Sreedhar Prasad, partner (e-commerce) at consulting and professional services firm KPMG. Instead, they are using that cash for online customer acquisition and on innovative sales channels, he added.

The rural market has a lot of potential, said Gopalakrishnan. But the company needs to offer a “different product line” for this market. Bata already has within its portfolio some products that are expected to do well in rural markets, but the company needs to develop more products priced between Rs.200 and Rs.1,000 a pair, he added.

In the last fiscal year, Bata added only 26 new stores. The company also sells select lines through some departmental stores. Currently, 80-85% of its revenue come from its own stores.

In the current year, it is looking to turn around at least 40-50 loss-making stores, said R.K. Gupta, director (finance) and chief financial officer. These will be refurbished and given a wider range of products to sell, but if they still cannot turn in profits, they will be shut, he added.

Online sales are growing, but for Bata, it is still at 1.5% of its total revenue, Gopalakrishnan said. Bata sells from its own e-commerce platform and through other online retailers such as Jabong and Amazon, but offers only a small collection for sale through this channel to protect its own retail outlets.

The footwear maker’s management remains circumspect about committing resources to shore up online sales. Bata wants to scale up online sales profitably, Gopalakrishnan said, adding that organically, online sales will grow to 5% of the company’s total revenue over the next four-five years.

Taco Bell is embarking on an Expansion drive in India

Mexican Fast food chain Taco Bell Owned by the US-based Yum! Brands Inc., is embarking on an expansion drive in India and plans to open more outlets in 12 cities in the next four years.

At present it operates nine stores in three cities and plans to add three more outlets taking the number to 12 by the year-end.

The company has partnered with the promoter family of Dabur, the Burmans whose firm Burman Hospitality has taken the franchise for north and some southern markets such as Karnataka and Telangana.

“Our initial focus will be the top metros and their neighbouring cities. We are already present in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. These three are important markets,” Taco Bell India managing director Ankush Tuli said.

Taco Bell plans to enter cities such as Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Pune and Ahmedabad, The company plans to have multiples stores in big citie,s he said. “We are looking to 10-12 cities between now and 2020.”

Taco Bell is also tweaking and adapting some local flavours in its menu to suit the Indian palate. “We have now tikka masala burrito. We are among the few global markets of Taco Bell which has an R&D facility. The entire vegetarian range is made for India as we do not have vegetarian outside much of India,” said Tuli.

He said by the end of this year, Taco Bell would completely source raw material and equipment locally.

Joost Juice Bars bets big on growing health awareness in India

Australian retail chain Boost Juice Bars, which is present in India under the brand Joost Juice Bars, is looking to operate about 100 stores by 2020.

The company introduced the natural juice and smoothies bar concept in India through a master franchise agreement with NatureU Enterprises, which currently operates 14 stores in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai.

Talking about the brand's growth in India, Janine Allis, Founder, Boost Juice Bars Australia, said: “In India, there are challenges due to lack of infrastructure, cold chains and it takes time to build a supply chain. Through the past few years, we have now understood the market. If one looks at the demographics and the potential, I believe India could be one of our fastest growing markets, now that the foundation of the business has been established.”

Allis said factors such as India being primarily a vegetarian market and growing health-consciousness will be catalyst for the company’s growth.

The Indian master franchise expects to be running 30 stores by 2017.

Currently, the company has outlets at airports, hospitals, shopping malls and gyms. It hopes to woo health-conscious consumers with cold-pressed juices, smoothies, low-fat wraps and sandwiches.

The fresh juice segment in the country is largely unorganised and fragmented.

Rivoli Sinha, Founder and MD, Joost Juice Bars, said: “Now that we have established the first few outlets and have a robust supply chain, we believe we will be able to scale up faster. We will expand through roping in sub-franchisees. We have already identified cities such as Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad for expansion.”

She said while the company would first look at expanding in metros, it would also look at smaller cities.

“For smaller cities, we may have to look at a different model and ensure we price ourselves right. While we operate in a niche segment, we want to ensure we are affordable.”

Overall, Boost Juice Bars have presence in 14 countries and operates about 450 stores.

Essar Oil plans to roll out 5000 pumps in next 18 months

Essar Oil, India’s second largest private oil refiner, plans to nearly double its petrol pumps to 4,300 in next 18 months, a senior company executive  said.
“We have 2,225 petrol pumps now which we will increase to 4,300 in next 18 months,” Essar Oil’s chief executive officer (CEO) retail Madhur Taneja said.

The retail network expansion planned is on franchise model and will entail an investment of about Rs.2,500 crore by the pump owners. “We were the first private company to enter fuel retailing business when we in 2003 opened our first petrol station,” he said.
After diesel price was deregulated or freed from government control in October 2014, the expansion was restarted and network has reached 2,225 now, he said.

“We saw sales volume increase from 700,000 kilolitres in 2014-15 to 1.67 million kilolitres in 2015-16 and we hope to continue to grow at over 100% this year as well against an industry growth of 7-7.5%,” he said.

India’s first private sector petrol pump came up in Maharashtra only about 13 years ago in 2003. Essar Oil was therefore the first private company to enter petro product retailing in India at a time when the government was experimenting with the idea of deregulated oil pricing by freeing up the price of ATF.

Through the course of this regulation regime, Essar Oil, in a bid to keep its retail ambitions alive, provided financial support to its franchisees through various schemes, thus helping them in tiding over the difficult times. This earned the company the dealers’ trust. In October 2014 when diesel prices were completely deregulated, and private retailers like Essar Oil were given a level playing field with their PSU counterparts, the company already had a network of about 1,400 retail outlets. Over the last two years, Essar Oil has been on a ramp-up drive to create a larger retail footprint across the length and breadth of the country. Many outlets in its existing network were revived and work began on launching new Essar Oil pumps.
Today, Essar Oil has a pan-India network of 2,200+ fuel stations, while an additional 2,800+ stations are in various stages of commissioning.

Essar Oil has an asset-light business model. It pioneered the concept of setting up retail outlets using the franchisee-owned, franchisee-operated model wherein the dealer leases his land to Essar for 30 years and invests in setting up the entire infrastructure of the outlet. Essar focuses on enhancing franchisee business by supplying high quality petrol and diesel at competitive rates.

Apple set to establish official presence in India

Apple is all set to establish an official presence in India, launching six stores between Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Straying from the norm, the stores will be launched in partnership with manufacturing company Tata’s consumer electronics chain Croma. Apple devices are already available in India through franchises and other electronics shops, but the Tata contract finally allows them to have an official presence in the country of 1.2 billion people.

Although the six locations will be at Croma’s own stores and will not be operated by Apple Inc, they will feature the signature design, furniture, fixtures and lighting used in Apple stores worldwide and the staff will be trained by the company itself.

The partnership is in accordance with local laws, which stipulate that foreign investors have to have a local partner to set up shops. Apple was hesitant due to the law but by partenering with an Indian company they may get around the law.

Apple hopes to increase their sales in India where 1.7 million iPhones were sold between October 2014 and September 2015, 600,00 more than the previous year. The stores’ opening will coincide with the Diwali festival in November.

Lenskart to aggressively expand offline

Valyoo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs online eyewear retailer Lenskart, is eyeing earnings of Rs.3,000 crore in the next five years as it aggressively expands its offline presence.

Valyoo is seeking franchise Partners  to open 2,000 franchise stores in next 5 years, a top executive said. “At the end of the day, we want more and more touch points to be available,” chief executive officer and founder Peyush Bansal said. “They have great marketing and customer acquisition channel.” The firm is looking mostly at smaller cities. “Though it’s a slower market but has huge opportunity, People have high aspirations and want to buy quality products,” Bansal said.

There is significant advantage of online and offline merchandise. It is all about how a company reaches out to more and more customers, While these outlets not only help customers link themselves to the brand but they also lead to increase in buying. They also reduce the return rate as the customers have checked the product offline.”

Gold’s Gym aggressive for expansion in tier-I, II, III cities

Gold’s Gym India is aggressively seeking franchise partners in tier-I, II and III cities to spread its operations fast across India. At present, the US-based fitness chain has 92 operational and 20 under construction gyms in India.

Commenting on the ideal franchise gym location, Nikhil Kakkar, Vice President, Franchising and Operations of the brand, said, “For setting up a franchise gym, a high-street location is recommended and it should be preferably between first and third floor of a building. Parking space is also important. Our team also assists our franchise partners in selecting the location as this is one of most important aspects of the business.”

Along with this, the gym chain has its own Gold’s Gym Fitness Institute for fitness trainers as it lays focus on qualified and trained coaches for its centres. “Trainers are the soul of this business and to have qualified trainers is a must. To ensure this, we have qualified trainers and we also run an institute for fitness trainers’ training i.e. Gold's Gym Fitness Institute,” adds Kakkar.

Gold’s Gym, which started in Venice California in 1965, is one of the largest international gym chains in the world. The India chapter of Gold’s Gym started in 2002, when the first Gold’s Gym India branch was set up in Mumbai.

Gold’s Gym India achieves 'Visionary of the Year' Award

With Gold’s Gym International completing 50 years in the fitness industry, its India leg has announced to have successfully signed 100 gyms across India. The brand wishes to reach greater heights and further incorporate the gym culture through its fast growing business idea of Gold’s Gym Express which focuses on tier-II and III cities along with select metros as well.

At this year’s Gold’s Gym International Convention held at Dallas, Texas – Team Gold’s Gym India was awarded the 'Visionary of the Year' award for setting exemplary standards for the best and fastest growing Gold’s Gym chain outside America. The brand has an experienced board of directors- Jagdish Valecha, Rajesh Advani, G Ramachandran and Karan Valecha- who are backed by a strong team looking after different departments.

World renowned celebrity body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger personally congratulated Chairman of Gold’s Gym India and even mentioned that Gold’s Gym India was one of the legacy builders for the brand. “Mr Arnold had marked his footprint in Gold’s Gym 50 years ago and has been one of the key influencers for the brand  ever since. It is an honour to be appreciated by him and his words will encourage us to push on even further. We have a team of very talented people who work tirelessly to turn our vision of providing health and fitness to everybody in India, into a reality and I would like to dedicate this award to our entire management team everyone associated with Gold’s Gym India for their hard work and dedication to the brand,” said an elated Jagdish Valecha.

Adidas to broaden footprint via omni-channel stores

German sportswear major adidas is looking to establish its footprint in India not just through increased offline and online presence, but also by firming up the omni-channel strategy.

The omni-channel or multiple channel retailing will let its shoppers order products online from adidas’ standalone stores.

According to Dave Thomas, adidas India, MD, these stores will be equipped with tablet PCs for placing orders.

A successful pilot (for multiple channel retailing) earlier this year, followed by introduction across 25-odd stores so far, has seen increased demand for offerings “by thousands”.

“This is of great benefit to us (the company), especially in the smaller franchise units, where the entire range of offerings cannot be displayed. We intend to increase the number of such stores,” he said. adidas has a product line of 5,000-odd items.

Omni-channel stores will be shored up to 200 by the year-end and, to 400, by mid-2016.

In terms of delivery of products, adidas will be relying on its e-commerce partners.

Revenues will be split between the e-commerce partner and the franchisee from where the order has been placed.

“There is a revenue sharing model that is there. It will help both as business will not be taken away from either of them,” Thomas said.

India, currently, accounts for 15 per cent of the company’s emerging market sales. Emerging markets include 78-80 countries across West Asia, South Asia, Indian sub-continent and Africa.

According to sources, the omni-channel presence will also reduce conflicts between online and offline stores.

Online strategy for adidas, include a separate product range dedicated for e-retailers.

The company is also looking to increase its offline presence (brick and mortar stores).

It currently has 760 stores across three brands – adidas (500-odd stores), adidas Originals (11) and the US-based Reebok that it acquired in 2006 (249-odd).

The plan is to increase the store count to 1,000 over the next three to five year period.

Meanwhile, adidas has also proposed 100 per cent foreign direct investment scheme (for single brand stores) to the Department Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), in addition to ‘only franchise’ format, it currently operates here.

CarZ Xpress plans 100 outlets

Multi-brand car repair and maintenance services company CarZ has unveiled its new franchisee programme under the ‘CarZ Xpress’ brand. The company said it will open 100 franchises in the next 36 months under CarZ Xpress.

 CarZ currently operates 12 company-owned car service centres under the ‘Grande” brand in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.

These facilities offer a full range of repair services for all makes and models of cars,  routine and preventive maintenance, electrical and mechanical repair, accident repair – denting and painting, tyres and services, battery, variety of styling and performance accessories, interior and exterior detailing, extended warranty and nationwide 24x7 road-side assistance. These services are offered at convenient neighbourhood locations. The company will continue to expand the Grande formats as well.

According to Venu Donepudi, managing director, CarZ, the first CarZ Xpress outlet was launched recently in Hyderabad, Telangana. This model improves accessibility and service to the car owner as well as provides tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurs seeking entry into the fast growing car service sector. 

The CarZ Xpress franchise network will offer a menu of cost-efficient quick repair and maintenance services with quick turnaround times and at convenient neighborhood locations. Each facility shall have advanced diagnostic and repair equipment along with highly trained manpower to provide best-in class service and experience to the customers.

Donepudi said, “Presently, only about 30 percent of the cars are repaired and serviced at authorised dealers/service centres. There is a huge opportunity for organised, independent and multi-brand car repair and service providers, considering that India has a current car parcel of over 20 million. And every year over 2.5 million cars are sold in India, making it the seventh largest auto market in the world. By 2017, it is estimated that this number will grow to 7 million cars sold each year.”

Vijay Gummadi, CEO of CarZ, said, “The CarZ Xpress franchise is programmed in such a way that the entrepreneur gets a quick return on investment while the end-customer is assured of top-end service. A CarZ Xpress franchisee gets start-up guidance, operational and marketing support. We believe that entrepreneurs who have fire in their bellies will join us and revolutionize car service.”

He said the CarZ franchise program will provide franchisees with comprehensive support at all stages from planning to operation. This includes site selection and facility set up; training and continuing education; operational support; spares sourcing support; marketing material and aids; proprietary shop management software; marketing and branding support;  and customer relationship management. 

Easiest way to become a petrol pump owner

Essar Oil is looking at touching a nationwide retail count of 5,000 outlets in the next two years. It presently has 1550 operational outlets and another 1600+ are in various stages of implementation.

The company operates through Franchisees-Owned Franchisee-Operated model (FOFO) across the country. “Essar pioneered the concept of setting up retail outlets using the Franchisee-Owned Franchisee-Operated model whereby the franchisee leases his land to Essar for a period of 30 years and invests in setting up the infrastructure of the outlet. Essar on the other hand focuses on enhancing the franchisee’s business by supplying high quality petrol and diesel and adding other profitable business lines including a lease rental on the land and sales commission, non-fuel retail options, and performance based returns on our dealer’s investment made to construct the fuel station to keep our franchisee’s business viable at all times,” Madhur Taneja, CEO Retail, Essar Oil, said.

Apart from providing its franchisees with high quality petrol and diesel, it partners with them across every step, right from commissioning to smooth operations of the retail outlet. Essar Oil is a fully integrated oil and gas company of international scale with a strong presence across the hydrocarbon value chain from exploration and production to refining and oil retail, has a huge franchise network. It owns India’s second largest single site refinery at Vadinar, Gujarat, having a capacity of 20 MMTPA, or 405,000 barrels per day.

Swiss Military to launch 171 stores in India by 2016-end

Premium lifestyle products brand Swiss Military plans to open 171 stores in India by the end of next year, of which 11 will be company owned and 160 under the franchise model.

"We plan to open 171 stores across the country by 2016 end. Out of which 11 will be company owned stores while 160 would be franchise stores," Swiss Military Worldwide Managing Director Anuj Sawhney said.

The company-owned stores will be in locations such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, he added.

"The franchise stores will be in tier I and tier II cities across the country. Apart from these, we will also be adding over 4,000 multi-brand outlets during the period," Sawhney said.

The investment on the expansion would be around Rs 200 crore, he added.

When asked how the company plans to fund the expansion, Sawhney said: "As a company we are debt free and the expansion will be done through internal accruals, from our global resources and some of it will also come from the franchisees."

The franchise stores will be self-financed and for multi brand outlets also there is no investment done by the company, he added.

Saying that the company is also looking to add to number of its products in the country, Sawhney said: "In India, we currently sell 300 products under 5 product lines -- baggage, leather, electronics, pens and accessories and will be launching 60 products every month."

The brand entered in the Indian market 5 years ago with corporate gifting space in the first phase. 

Then it moved into in-flight sales partnering with Jet Airways, Indigo and Air India. 

The company's products will also be available on online portals such as Flipkart and Amazon.

The company entered into retail market in the country in April 2014 and is now present in 57 towns in 23 states across the country. 

Swiss Military products are available in 550 multi-brand outlets.

Globally, the brand has around 1,800 models of products in segments such as sun glasses, footwear, household appliances, leather wallets, electronics, cosmetics and electronics, and outdoors such as tents and sleeping bags, Sawhney said.

The company currently has 600 stores worldwide, out of which 11 are company owned full stores with most of them being in Switzerland, France and Germany.

utime Fitness Studios to foray in Indian market

Hong Kong-based franchise fitness chain utime Fitness Studios is all set to make its entry in Indian market via Master Franchise route. The brand is on the lookout for around 9 to 10 regional Master Franchisees in India, each with their own exclusive territories. Presently, utime has plans to start with the three pilot cities including Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore where each city would have its own regional Master Franchisee operator. Each operator would be setting up about 15 centres for utime Fitness over the first five years.

Cathal Kiely, CEO, utime Fitness Studios said, “Sales or customer acquisition would be a responsibility that would be handled by the respective Master Franchisees for their own exclusive territories. utime Fitness would be making their India franchise program a part of all their global marketing campaigns and would also be sharing with the India Master Franchisees the strategies that they have traditionally adopted in Hong Kong to boost sales. Design and implementation of these strategies would be the responsibility of the Indian Master Franchises.”

On franchisee requirement, Kiely further added, “Investment required to set up a franchise outlet is between $300 and $500k USD (based on HK market). Area required is 300 - 500 sq. mts., while RoI will be around 75%.

utime Fitness Studios is a franchise business that focuses on the customer first, providing members with the best equipment, guidance and value-added services to help them achieve results. Its studios remain open 24/7 with entry via personalised access fobs and they offer month-to-month membership with no contract.

Kangana Ranaut inaugurates first Gap Store in India

American multinational Clothing and accessories brand Gap made its way to the Indian market on Saturday with the launch of its First Store, Inaugurated by actress Kangana Ranaut amidst a huge crowd in a Mall. 

Spread over 10,000 Sq ft at the Select City Walk in South Delhi, the new  flagship store offers Gap for men and Women, Gapkids  and babyGap Summer 2015 Collections. It has partnered Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd. for the India entry, where the latter is looking at an investment of Rs 400 crore over five years.

We are excited that Gap is now available to our Indian customers through the terrific partnership between Gap and Arvind. Through this partnership, we plan to open upto 40 stores across the country.” said J Suresh, MD and CEO, Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd.

“We are pleased to bring Gaps’ casual American style to customers in India and we have been encouraged by the positive response from our launch efforts thus far. We are looking forward to providing a unique branded shopping experience across India.” said Ismail Seyis, VP, Gap Franchise.

Australia's pizza chain Eagle Boys seeks India expansion

Australian pizza chain Eagle Boys is rapidly expanding its base in India and  has targeted 50 outlets in India by end of 2015.  Their current outlet base of 14 outlets is spread out across six outlets in Mumbai, four in Pune, one in Chennai and three in Hyderabad. Recently, the company has opened its sixth outlet in Pune.  So far, the company has invested over Rs 50 crore in India.

Rakesh Nanda, director, Eagle Boys Pizza said, "In the coming year, keeping in line with our aggressive growth targets, the business vision is to achieve more than 100 outlets across the length and breadth of the country. We are moving into this space, with plenty of its franchisees beginning to offer in-store dining services.  We are investing in the range of Rs 50- 60 crore whilst the minimum target being looked at in terms of volumes is 50 new outlets per year. Eagle Boys looks to expand to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Chhattisgarh and beyond."

According to Nanda, pizza is moving into new territories, taking on a role in casual family dining.   Eagle Boys selling seven-inch pizzas price ranging from Rs 49 to Rs 100, catering to all consumer segments and price points, ranging from corporates to students.

Nanda added, "Apart from the 2000 employees who will be directly on rolls with Eagle Boys, there are another 500 who will get indirect -unemployment by dint of being food suppliers and manufacturers partnering with us."

Apart from Pizza Hut and Domino's many international pizza brands are now expanding their footprint in India.Few names are  Debonairs Pizza from South Africa,  Sbarro of the US.   

Eagle Boys has 200 outlets in Australia with a  22 per cent share of the pizza market with the annual turnover of USD one billion. Apart from India, it is rapidly growing presence in Papua New Guinea and Fiji.