Podar Jumbo Kids Seeks Franchisees Pan-India

Incepted in the year 2000, Podar Jumbo Kids of the Podar Education Group now seeks franchisees pan-India to join hands with. The brand took the franchise route in 2003 and has over 200 successful centres all over India. Podar Jumbo Kids has become a trendsetter in early childhood innovations, research, surveys and parent education.

Dr Pavan Podar, Chairman & Trustee, Podar Education Group says: “We aim at a long term committed relationship for over 15 years with our franchise partners. Thus our business development team does an in depth survey and study of the potential in the proposed area/location by the franchise enquiry and then only finalises the premise.”

Podar Jumbo Kids has ensured the success of their franchisees by focusing on two aspects, business and education. The core business of early childhood is education. Podar Jumbo Kids offers two kids of business opportunities to franchisees, Podar Jumbo Kids- kindergarten and Podar Jumbo Kids Plus- kindergarten with daycare. 20 per cent of their franchisees own more than two centres.

More than 80 per cent of the centres are running over full capacity and have expanded their business model. This has been possible with brand's constant support and training. A franchisee of Podar Jumbo Kids/Plus can build the capacity of its centre with multi-revenue models within the brand like toddler club, playschool, nursery, junior kindergarten, senior kindergarten, mother and me club, daycare, activity classes etc. The brand prefers opening its centres at Residential areas preferably with outdoor space for outdoor play, multiple washrooms and ground floor. 

Marshalls To Have 15 New Franchisees By 2014 End

Wall coverings specialist brand, Marshalls now plans to expand at a rapid speed. Owned by Marshalls Enterprise India Pvt. Ltd, the brand started franchising in 2007 and currently has nine company owned and 33 franchise led units.

Karan Sharma, Director, Marshalls Enterprise India Pvt. Ltd informs: “By Dec 2014, we look forward to have 15 new franchisees. Marshalls also envisions itself as Rs 300 crore brand with more than 300 showrooms in all metros and tier II and III cities in the next five years.”

Established in 1975, Marshalls has a rich experience and understands the product, customer and business inside out. The brand has customised software to track every inquiry, stock and sales and has built a strong goodwill over the years. The brand offers lucrative business opportunity in the interior décor segment.

Marshalls imports its collection exclusively from the world’s largest wall covering manufacturers. The brand boasts of more than 3000 designs and two lakh rolls. With a single price policy across the country, Marshalls offers an end to end solution to customers. Right from understanding the customer’s requirement to helping him/her select the right wall covering to wall measurements and estimation to execution with warranty; Marshalls helps and guides till the very end.

Starbucks to open new types of coffee shops

The company has already been adding more than 1,500 stores a year and it will also roll out some experimental retail designs as part of its effort to dominate the coffee market.

In December, Starbucks is expected to open l a store where only limited brands of coffee will be sold under the trademark Reserve. The company is planning to open 100 stores over the next five years and the flagship of the stores will be in its hometown of Seattle.

“It’s going to be this mix of roasting, manufacturing and retailing in one cafe,” said Starbucks spokeswoman Haley Drage. “It’s going to be massive: 15,000 square feet. It’s really going to be an immersive experience to our customers.”

She said the Reserve coffees come in limited batches, like a single 150-pound bag of Geisha brand coffee from Costa Rica. “Some of those coffees, you might only see once in a lifetime,” said Drage.

The manufacturing facility in Seattle will allow Starbucks to expand its four-year-old Reserve brand and the company will be then able to sell it in up to 1,500 of its stores.

As for the rest of the 100 stores that will only sell Reserve, Drage said they’ll be normal-sized retail locations and not a big place like the one in Seattle.

The company is also planning to open its first express store in New York next year. The store will be smaller than its usual retail space. The company is planning to expand this idea in order to draw customers who prefer the drive-thru style of retail interaction.

World’s First Reebok Fit Hub Studio In Mumbai

Strengthening its focus towards becoming the most desirable premium fitness brand in the country,Reebok launched it’s first-ever Reebok Fitness Studio in Mumbai. It is an innovative format situated within the Fit-Hub store. The first Reebok franchise ‘store and studio’ concept launched at Mumbai’s Linking Road has been conceptualised to meet the fitness needs of Indian consumers and will enable them to engage in exciting studio fitness activities such as Dance, Aerobics and Yoga. Reebok has a pan-India presence with 400 exclusive franchise stores and a 1000 member strong instructor alliance.

Commenting on the launch, Erick Haskell, Managing Director, Reebok India said, “It gives us immense pleasure to launch the world’s first-ever Reebok Fitness Studio in Mumbai, and empower our customers to embark on their fitness journey. It is all the more exciting that India is the first Reebok market to have developed and implemented this concept. We hope to receive a great response to this new addition, and aim to have ten such ‘store and studio’ formats spread across all parts of the country by the end of 2015, thereby truly spreading the message of fitness and encouraging people to be ‘Fit for Life’.”

Expressing his thoughts on the launch, Somdeb Basu, Brand Director, Reebok India said, “After the great response we have received for our Fit Hub concept stores across the country, we are extremely happy to announce the launch of our first ‘store and studio’ format in Mumbai. With the addition of the new Fitness Studio, these Fit Hub stores aim to truly serve as a one-stop fitness destination helping our customers, and help them achieve their fitness goals.”

Initiated in 2013 in India, Reebok’s innovative Fit Hub stores have become popular amongst the consumer and have seen tremendous success across important markets including Delhi, Mumbai Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Chennai amongst others, reaching a landmark of 100 stores in 50 cities.

RCOM To Expand Its Mobile Store Presence To Over 1000 Locations

Reliance Communications (RCOM) is one of India's foremost and truly integrated telecommunications service provider. It serves over 118 million active mobile subscribers on its seamless CDMA and GSM, IP enabled network across the country. To upgrade the service experience of its subscriber, RCOM is in the process of expanding its high tech and fully integrated customer touch points across 22 telecom circles it operates in. These Reliance Mobile stores are being upgraded as special experience zones for its wireless products and services, where a customer would be able to find solutions and remedy to any telecommunication related query by a well trained staff manning them. 

The new Reliance Mobile Stores (RMS) would have a mix of Company owned and Franchisee owned outlets, totally in sync with the expanding and evolving requirements of its customers. As RCOM is the only integrated telecom operator offering seamless pan India CDMA and GSM Mobile services to its customers, these new stores will benefit RCOM’s subscribers to have easy access to solutions & services on demand at a convenient location near them. These new Mobile stores are being upgraded as one stop shops to provide instant solutions under one roof to any subscriber who requires handset related remedy, including dongles & smart phones or needs to seek a remedy pertaining to mobile services being offered by RCOM.

The company plans to have over a 1000 such Hi-tech RMS by the end of current financial year, keeping majority of them under its own ownership to have a better control through the initial teething phase of this expansion.

Malaysian brand Marrybrown to expand food outlets in India

Sensing a growing demand for fried chicken, burgers in tier 2 and 3 cities Malaysian quick service restaurant chain Marrybrown will be expanding its foot print in southern India, said a top official.

Marrybrown will also be adding more dishes to its menu card mid-September, he said.

"We are seeing growth in smaller towns like Rajapalayam, Dindugul and other places in Tamil Nadu. We would like to leverage the first mover advantage by opening outlets in smaller towns in the southern states," Ajith, director, MGM Entertainments Pvt Ltd, the master franchisee for Marrybrown in India.

According to him, the chain is also open to have its outlets in hotels located in second or third tier towns.

"By the end of this fiscal we would like to increase our number of outlets to 75 from the current 48 (44 in Tamil Nadu, two each in Bangalore and Kochi). The expansion will be through a mix of owned and franchisee outlets. For every five franchisee outlets we will have an owned one," he added.

He said the investment needed in smaller towns is not high unlike what is needed to set up an outlet in major cities.

"People are aware of global brands in smaller towns. A major competitor brand is becoming generic in those markets," he added.

According to Ajith, the Marrybrown chain in India is not stuck to fried chicken and burgers but also offers flavoured rice and even biryani to cater to the local palate.

"We offer equal number of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes," Ajith said.

Speaking of the new launches, Ajith said the chain would added Muncheez (fried chicken with masala powder to the sprinkled separately), egg burger, corn cheese burger and corn cheese nuggets.

He said the masala powder comes from Marrybrown's headquarters in Malaysia.

"Most of the food innovations happen in Malaysian headquarters and we pick up what is suitable for our market," Ajith said.

However the Indian company's own launch was the Chicken Poppers, an idea derived from popcorn.

Lenskart opens a franchise store in Vizag

Online platform for fashionable and stylish sunglasses, contact lenses and eyewear, launched in 2010, Lenskart.com, recently opened a franchise store in Vizag. The retailer is expanding its footprints in the southern region. This is in continuance of their innovative click and mortar model that enables patrons to avail a personalised, one-to-one service and experience of the brand. Lenskart.com offers over 5,000 stylish frames and glasses and more than 45 kinds of high quality, scratch resistant and unbreakable branded contact lenses.

The store, equipped with iPads provide access to online portal as well assist customers to place an order instantly in case of non-availability of a product. These facilities are transforming the whole process of purchasing eyewear into a gen-next experience through a combination of online and offline retail.

The company has also kick-started an innovative initiative to reach out to the customers. It is sending out optometrists on bikes equipped with eye-testing equipment to consumers in their homes. The initiative started its first run in Delhi recently and will be launched in Bangalore and other cities during this fiscal.

The company plans to tie-up with over 100 optometrists in Delhi in the coming months to conduct 1,200 eye checkups a day. Experts point out that hybrid retail model also helps in brand building exercise since consumers tend to trust what they can see and feel.