Kinderdance Expands In India

Kinderdance International Inc, a leader in developmental dance, gymnastics and fitness programs for young children, announces expansion under Kinderdance Area Developer, Kirthana Ramarapu. Kinderdance of India has signed franchise agreements with Manisha Ahuja and Sunitha Venkatesh of India. Both Manisha and Sunitha have successfully completed their training and are now certified to teach Kinderdance programs to young children in India. 

 Kinderdance is a nationally recognized dance, gymnastics and fitness program for children age's two to twelve. Their 132 Franchisees currently teach over 12,000 children weekly at over 800 various locations in 36 states and 8 countries. Kinderdance® places emphasis on building self-confidence and self-esteem in children through learning to share, lead, interact and respond to others' needs as well as their own. The programs incorporate the arts, movement, education, music, fitness and the fun of learning into a young child's life while helping in the worldwide fight against childhood obesity. The company offers the educational movement programs on site to child-care centers, recreational centers, churches, fitness centers, corporate child care, community centers, military bases, public and private schools and may other viable locations.

Fastrack On A Fast Trail Of Expansion

Launched in 1998, Fastrack became an independent urban youth brand in 2005. Titan’s young brand, Fastrack now plans to take its store count from current 150 to 175 by the end of FY 2014. Apart from watches and sunglasses, Fastrack extended its footprint into accessories in 2009 with an exciting range of bags, belts and wallets and has today successfully notched up the title of being one of the most loved youth fashion brand in the country.

Fastrack started franchising in 2009 and its USP is ​b​rand preference among the youth, high stock turns, low scale of initial investment, working capital, high profitability. As a corporate, Fastrack focuses on building itself and making great products available to its consumers. It believes that the operational aspects of retailing are best handled by business associates as their local knowledge and dynamism provide a great value add.  This strategy has delivered optimum results in the brand’s retail channel.

Fastrack made remarkable achievements and achieved many milestones during 2008-2013. The brand rolled out to more than 150 locations within four years of launching and developed a bold new retail identity that brings the brand alive. It also clocked Rs.100 Crore of annual sale in the third year of channel operations.​

Hyatt To Have 38 Franchisee-Run Hotels

Hyatt Hotels Corporation will sell 38 select service hotels as franchises to a company organised by Lone Star Funds for about $590 million.

The portfolio of 38 hotels consists of Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotels totaling 4,950 rooms. As part of the sale, Hyatt will enter into franchise agreements with the purchaser- Lone Star Funds, with all hotels maintaining their existing Hyatt Place and Hyatt House branding.

The purchaser intends to spend approximately $50 million in additional capital expenditures across the Hyatt Portfolio over the next 24 months. Aimbridge Hospitality, LLC will manage the hotels for the purchaser. The transaction is expected to be completed in November 2014.

Commenting on the new development, Steve Haggerty, Global Head of capital strategy, franchising and select service for Hyatt, said “Hyatt utilised its strong balance sheet and industry expertise to launch the Hyatt Place and Hyatt House brands. We are now leveraging that brand equity to recycle capital while maintaining a long-term brand presence in multiple markets,”

“We believe the renovations planned for the portfolio will help maintain the brands’ reputation as the leading brands in their segments and we look forward to deepening our relationship with Lone Star and Aimbridge,” he added further.

It manages, franchises, owns and develops Hyatt branded hotels, resorts and residential and vacation ownership properties around the world. As of December 31, 2013, the company's worldwide portfolio consisted of 549 properties.

Metropolis Seeks Partners In Mumbai And Ahmedabad

Metropolis Healthcare Limited is looking at expanding its base in Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Metropolis , the pathology specialist, has 105 state-of-the-art laboratories, over 700 collection centres in Maharashtra. The brand has a presence in several foreign countries-the UAE, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius and Ghana.

Ameera Shah, MD and CEO, Metropolis Healthcare Limited, says: “In addition to making profits, our focus remains on innovation and consistent improvement of our service standards. Moving ahead with the same spirit, we are expanding our presence through franchising. We are looking for enthusiastic individuals with a strong business acumen and interest in replicating the Metropolis business model successfully. We have devised a franchising program to provide complete training and support to all our franchisees in registering growth and higher profits.”

Metropolis is a pathology specialist delivering over 15 million tests a year, catering to more than 10,000 laboratories, hospitals, nursing homes and 2,00,000 consultants. With 33 years of experience in delivering accurate reports, Metropolis has earned the reputation of being India's only multinational chain of diagnostic centres with presence in many countries.

Brand’s quality policy and program is designed to achieve and maintain highest standards. Its commitment to quality is further reiterated by the number of national and international accreditations it has received. 

EuroKids Targets 165 Franchisees By 2014 End

EuroKids International Pvt. Ltd is looking at adding 165 franchisees by the end of this year. The brand presently has 25 company-owned and 880 franchise units. EuroKids started its operations in 1998 and took the franchise route in 2002. It is present in 315 cities.

On its expansion plans of next few years, Prajodh Rajan, CEO and Executive Director, EuroKids International Pvt Ltd, says, “Our plans are to add another 500 new EuroKids centres in the next few years and would like to take our successful concept to every town and city in the country. We have also made concrete plans to grow the business in SAARC and Middle Eastern countries. We already have pre-schools in Nepal & Bangladesh.”

“Going forward, we definitely see a marked shift of parents preference in choosing organised pre-schools rather than unorganised ones. We expect the organised pre-school share to increase from a current 8 per cent to 25 per cent in the next five years time. Pre-Schools till recently were largely a metro/tier-I phenomenon, but of late there has been an increased penetration of this concept in tier-II and III towns,” he shares further.

The brand believes that it can be successful if its franchisees are successful first. EuroKids feels a good franchisor provides extensive support and a robust training mechanism to franchisees to make them successful. Thus, entrepreneurs can look forward to franchising as great options to fulfill their entrepreneurial aspirations with great success. 

US-Based Smoothie Factory To Open 90 Stores By 2019

Smoothie Factory, a US-based health and wellness cafe is planning to open 90 outlets by the end of 2019. Out of these 40-45 would be company owned and the rest would be franchisee run.  Around 50-60 of these will be bigger cafe formats spread between 1,200-1,500 square feet and the rest will be mini formats with an area of about 400 square feet. The company is looking forward to explore Northern and Eastern regions. It will open at places like Chandigarh, Jaipur and Kolkata.

Arjun Khera, Chief Brand Officer, Smoothie Factory India says, “We will start seeking able franchisees by October onwards. Each cafe format store will have an expected revenue of Rs. 15 lakh per month and the smaller ones would have around Rs. 9 lakh per month. We shall invest around Rs. 50 crore for setting up our company owned outlets in the next five years.”

Smoothie Factory started from Carrollton, Texas in 1996. Today it has a presence in 13 countries including USA, India, China, Vietnam, Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. The brand started its operations in India in September, 2013. Presently it has two operational outlets in India. The third one will be launched soon. All three are located in Delhi NCR. While the fourth and fifth outlet will be added by the end of March 2015. These shall also be in Delhi NCR region. All five are company operated.

Smoothie Factory offerings include real fruit smoothies, freshly squeezed juices, frozen yogurts, salads and waffles. The company is revamping its menu by launching shakes suiting Indian taste apart from serving tandoori options that allure the local people.

Spykar to expand denim footprint in India

Company plans to increase the present 206 Spykar stores across major cities and towns to over 400 stores

Spykar, a specialist in making fashion jeans is expanding its footprint by adding new stores, products and extending its denim franchise into the FMCG category.

It is planning to increase its exclusive stores from the current 206 Spykar stores across major cities and towns to over 400 stores over the next three years.

"Spykar is the only Indian player who is making fashion jeans. The range includes the five-pocket jeans, fashionable denims, cargos, fatigues, loozers, jackets, tees, shirts and inner wear. We are adding over 50 designs every month. We have just launched a range of matching jeans, T-shirts and jackets targeted at the young boys and girls, who primarily drive our brand. Every six month we bring out a new fashion in our range. The latest collection bears witness to our exquisite, elaborate and gallant styling for the rebellious and self indulgent youth of today", said Sanjay Vakharia, director at Spykar Lifestyles.

According to Vakharia, India's total denim jeans market is of Rs 6000 crore which is mostly dominated by foreign players. Spykar is particularly targeting youth who are of 15 to 25 years of age for its products.

The expansion of stores will be focused around tier III and IV cities. Each new franchise exclusive store in the 800-1,000 sq ft size would invest Rs 25-Rs 30 lakh to open a store with a minimum of 1,800 stock keeping units (SKUs).

The company recently launched its autumn and winter collection in Pune to expand its foot print across India to cash in on growing demand for its range of jeans.

Spykar is now planning to extend its denim franchise into the FMCG category with a slew of products like talc, hand wash, body gels and shampoos.

It is already selling with deodorants and perfume and it is now increasing its FMCG distribution with a 'lifestyle' positioning. Spykar has already licensed its FMCG business to a third party (Staark Accessories) with 150 distributors.

Spykar also sells a range of eyewear, bags, belts, wallets and socks. Spykar is now planning to foray into FMCG category by launching products like hand wash, body gels and shampoos. It is now increasing its FMCG distribution with a 'lifestyle' positioning.

With the annual turnover of Rs 183 crore, the company is growing at CAGR of 18-20% last the 10 years.

Recently, Metmin Investments, a HNI fund owned by Apurva Bagri, has increased its stake from 32 to 60% for an estimated Rs 300 crore by buying out the stake of private equity player Avigo Capital Partners who sold its 28% stake to Metmin Investments who now promotes Spykar Lifestyles.