Five Star Chicken seeks five star franchisees pan-India

Charoen Pokphand Foods (CP Foods) is looking forward to open 100 to 150 Five Star Chicken outlets in India by the year end via the franchise route. The brand says 10 % of its total outlets are company-run while the remaining 90 % are operated by its franchisees.

With a production and processing facility at Budigere near Bengaluru, Five Star Chicken has 265 outlets in India across Bangalore, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Hyderabad.

It also operates outlets in Salem, Coimbatore and Erode in Tamil Nadu. Since the brand operates its own farms, storage and distribution freely, they are able to optimise the cost and pass on better value to its customer.

Sanjeev Pant, Senior Vice President, CP Foods, says, “We will be opening around 100 to 150 year by this year end. We will be expanding in South India followed by West. In the near future, we will also have frozen food category.”

The chicken brand, which was founded in the year 1985 in Thailand, comes from a Thai multi-national conglomerate- CP Foods with over $13 billion sales in agro and food industry globally.

Five Star Chicken is one of the most popular brands in Asia with presence in nine countries with more than 7000 outlets in Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, China, Bangladesh and India. In India, the brand launched its first outlet in November 2012 in Bangalore.

With a growing network of stores Five Star Chicken is becoming a strong neighbourhood brand offering great quality chicken at affordable prices to all consumers. The brand offers a wide range of chicken recipes/menu in spicy Indian flavours as well as other Asian and Thai flavours.

Apollo building retread franchise network

Apollo Tyres Ltd. is launching a retreading franchise initiative in India, with plans to open up to 20 “Apollo Retread Zone” (ARZ) plants there during the current fiscal year.

Apollo did not disclose its budgeted investment nor sales expectations for the initiative, which it launched last year with the opening of retread plants in Jaipur and Chennai. The third Apollo Retread Zone, in Mumbai, opened recently to service customers in western India.Apollo said the objective of the initiative is to provide quality retreading service to truck-bus customers and fleet owners. As such these branded outlets are equipped with advanced retreading equipment, high quality tread material and trained workers. 

Satish Sharma, president, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa for Apollo, said the increase in usage of radial tires in the truck-bus segment has increased the potential for retreading, and thereby the need for quality retreading outlets to service customers.

Radial truck/bus tires are capable of multiple retreads due to the strong carcass, Apollo said, with each retread costing only 25 to 27 percent of the cost of a new tire while providing nearly 90 percent of the mileage of a new tire.

Mr. Sharma said the tire maker is “committed to providing a 360-degree solution to our customers, which very much includes retreading as well, to enhance the tire life of the end-user.”

The targeted size of an ARZ retread plant is 3,000 square feet, Apollo said, with a capacity of 20 to 25 tires a day and eight to 10 employees.In addition to providing infrastructural support for these retreading outlets, Apollo Tyres also trains the employees of the ARZ franchisees at its state-of-the-art Retread Research and Training Centre in Chennai, India.

Vantage Group's Value Inns & Hotels Worldwide makes foray into India

Value Inn Worldwide & Value Hotel Worldwide of the Vantage brand have entered India, through an exclusive master license agreement with Miraya Hotel Management Pvt. Ltd, stated a company release.

The Value Inns & Hotels India will be positioned as two to four Star quality hotels, depending on location, size of the hotel and product for 30 to 65 rooms. They will primarily be business hotels offering food & beverage and banqueting facilities for weddings and events.

“We feel that there is great demand for hotels for the middle class in second and third-tier markets, and we look forward to bringing our Value brands to those areas of the country. We plan to grow via new construction and re-branding of existing hotels, and are ecstatic that Miraya plans to emulate Vantage’s innovative brand affiliation model that is designed for independent operators and allows them the freedom to operate in the manner they feel is best for their market place,” said Roger Bloss, Founder, President and CEO of Vantage Hospitality.

The award-winning Value Inn brand has set industry records for growth that offers members the lowest fees in the industry, reasonable agreements, flexible services and amenities, sensible PIPs, and 'A Voice and A Vote' in the brand's direction while providing the most comprehensive resources in the lodging industry.

Competitive, fast growing and the world's eighth largest hotel chain, as claimed by the company release, Value Inns & Hotels Worldwide has over 1,200 properties across USA, Canada, South Korea, Indonesia and Mexico and has given Miraya the exclusive right to develop its international brands in India. “A tie up with the fastest growing hotel chain is very encouraging for us. It was heartening to know that 76 per cent of the Vantage members are of Indian descent, which proves that the chain is preferred by Indians. For this MIHL will look at investing approximately Rs700 crores in acquiring assets in India to rebrand them under the Value Inn Brands,” enthused Rohit Yadav Founder and Chairman, Miraya Investment Holdings Ltd (MIHL).

Value Inns & Hotels India plan to raise the bar of lodging in mid-market segment in India. “The brand offers hotel owners the most affordable alternative to a traditional hotel franchise in the budget through lower midscale segments and we are happy to be bringing this benefit to hotel owners in India. Our plan is to make Value Inns & Hotels India a 100 hotel chain within the next five to seven years.” said Sudhir Sinha, Managing Director and CEO, Value Inns & Hotels India.

While guests of the hotel can enjoy consistent quality and exceptional service at each hotel, owners will benefit from Vantage’s state-of-the-art, global reservation system powered by Sabre Hospitality Solutions, as well as its comprehensive revenue-generating programs and resources.

“Following an extensive search, Vantage has found the ideal partner in Miraya Hotel Management. The company has all the attributes that we were looking for – they have strong knowledge of the Indian hotel industry and franchising, expertise in operations, and are financially sound. With Miraya, we now have the right plan, the right people and the right brands,” said Bill Hanley, Vantage’s Group President of International Development.

Snap Fitness to open 178 new health clubs in India

As part of its expansion plans, US-based Snap Fitness plans to add 178 health clubs in India by the end of 2017. 

It has 62 operational clubs in India, is looking at places like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad for expanding its footprint. 

"We are planning to have 240 locations under our brand by end of 2017. Out of these 20 centres will be company-owned and operated, while the rest which is close to 220 will be franchise owned, franchise operated," Snap Fitness India MD and CEO B M Vikram said. 

"We will be positioning most of these centres in tier one cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi and NCR. A fraction of them will also go to tier two and tier three cities," he said. 

Crocs to open 60 stores by 2018

US shoemaker  Crocs, a footwear brand mostly known for colourful rubbery clogs with holes, entered the country in 2007 through a joint venture with Chogori Retail which was later changed into franchise operation.

Crocs has terminated  its exclusive franchising agreement for India with Chogori Retail and will now partner several companies, instead, to open retail stores in India. "We have planned out a strategy of having few but strong franchise and shedding some of the partners that don't, can't or won't want to grow with us whatever the reason might be," said Nissan Joseph, general manager of Crocs India.

Crocs, plans to open around 60 stores in the next three years apart from pushing its online initiative that already accounts for over 10% of sales in less than a year of its ecommerce entry.

Joseph said the last of the Chogori stores could go on till June. "Some will close and reopen, some will reopen in different locations inside the mall and some will reopen through new franchise partners," he said. Made with lightweight anti-microbial foam called Croslite, Crocs first hit stores in 2004 as a beach shoe and became an instant hit, thanks to its radical colourful design and lightweight, comfortable and odour-resistant qualities. 

Sbarro hopeful of expanding their India footprint to 50 outlets by mid-2016

Sbarro, chain of Pizza restaurants popular for New York style Pizza internationally, has plans to expand their footprint from the current 15 outlets to more than 50 by middle of next year. Sbarro has opened their 15th outlet last week in Bandra in Mumbai. The international chain based in Columbus, Ohio in the US has three regional franchisees in India for North & East, West and Southern region. 

The international restaurant chain which currently has 1,000 odd stores in 44 countries is keen to expand their network in Asia in general, South East Asia in particular, and the Pacific region. Naresh Vinod Worlikar, Vice President -International Franchise Operations-Asia, Sbarro said that the focus currently is in establishing presence in countries like Malaysia, Myanmar, China, Korea, Australia, etc. Terming India as a potential market for Sbarro, Worlikar said that they are hopeful of adding 15 to 20 new outlets in India by the end of this year. 

As part of their expansion and maintaining the standards, Sbarro will be soon launching Training Centres, one each in a Franchisee region, in India. Worlikar said that one of the operational outlet will be designated as a Training Centre and people will be imparted six to eight weeks training at these centres. Currently, Sbarro has training facilities in the US and Philippines. 

Disclosing the business model, Worlikar said that Sbarro works with Master Franchisees in international markets. These franchisees could be for a country or for multiple countries, or for regions within a country. “These franchisees have the right to develop stores under their corporation or appoint sub-franchisees ,” he said.

Talking about the freedom to localize the recipes, Philippe Jore, Vice President – International Training & Culinary, Sbarro said that while formulations remained the same internationally, localization is permitted in terms of Pepperoni and use of flavours. “In India, considering the market sentiments, Chicken is used in place of Pork or Beef,” he said. “The differentiator for Sbarro is the fresh dough, fresh sauces, and 100% real mozzarella cheese. We are the only international Pizza brand which offer Pizza by Slice. Customer can order a full pizza or in slices,” he said.

Carzonrent launches MYLES franchise program

MYLES has a strong community of customers who believe in using MYLES cars instead of buying cars. 

They also believe in MYLES philosophy of Car Sharing/Self Drive services that helps in the decongestion of cities and subsequently the environment. MYLES Angels will be an addition to the existing MYLES community that aims to get more like-minded individuals together to make a larger community of those seeking smart mobility solutions.

Carzonrent is also looking at increasing the MYLES fleet to 40,000 in the next three years.

Being the pioneers in providing 360 degrees mobility solutions, the franchise program gives a chance to the individuals to be MYLES Angels and to earn revenue out of the cars they own. 

Myles consumer base continues to grow at over 40% on a Month on Month basis in the last 14 months of its existence and provides a potential of high return to associates on the investments.

Being part of a technology enabled process and large network will allow high growth potential to the Myles Angels as well. Some of the exclusive features of the franchise program are highlighted below;

Assured Online Business.
Extensive Marketing Support.
Fleet management support
Technology Driven business less manpower required
Investor friendly investment scheme

Commenting on the launch, Sakshi Vij, Executive Director, Carzonrent said,"Myles comes with a promise that you can save anywhere between 20-40% of your yearly cost of owning a car if you choose to rent the car as per need. There are over 25000 Mylers who experience this benefit regularly. The rapid growth of this community has encouraged us to develop the Myles Angels network. Over the next 12 months, we will be looking to add over 2000 such Entrepreneurs who believe in making smarter mobility solutions available in their cities. We have always been the leaders in the urban mobility space and believe in innovation through technology and collaborative models. We believe self-drive is the next engine of growth of mobility in India."