Brioni, The Suitmakers India Franchise Badasaab Group expects double digit growth.

Brioni, the Italian luxury men’s brand renowned for its hand-stitched suits, expects demand in India to remain robust.

The brand’s expertise is in hand-crafted, custom-made suits, each of which takes over 20 hours to be created. Company’s chief executive Francesco Pesci thinks he looks best in suits and he wears them every day.

“Suits are very functional,” he says, demonstrating how the various pockets in a jacket serve a man’s purpose. In an interview with DNA, he spoke about the company’s ambition to become synonymous with Italian elegance. Excerpts:

You have been in India for a while, what do you feel about how your brand is doing here?
2008 and 2009 were difficult times in all markets around the world, and India was no exception. In 2010, we saw the market picking up again. I think most high-income consumers, whom we target, are still very cautious because there are too many events happening in this world that are disturbing. But the rebound in India has continued even in 2011 and I think it will grow even faster from 2012. I am very optimistic about the India market, and Indian consumers are not new to us. We were serving them for nine years through our shop in London before we came to India.

What about opening more stores here?
Not yet. Currently, we have two stores — one in Mumbai and one in New Delhi. (Badasaab Group is the master franchise for Brioni in India). Before I open more stores here, I want to grow the business in existing stores. I would be happy with an average growth rate of 15-20% for the next 3-5 years.

Which is your biggest market? Internationally, are you looking to enter newer markets?
US is the biggest market for us followed by Europe and Russia. South America is a market Brioni is not present yet. We have been a bit behind there, so we need to catch up.

Is it true what some people say about your tailors that they can stitch suits blindfolded?
Our master tailor Angelo Petrucci can do that, yes. He can stitch a whole suit blindfolded. Tailors are like artisans, they have skilled hands and it’s the hands that direct them, not the eyes.

What kind of training do you give them to become such experts, and is retaining them a challenge?
We are the only company in the world that has a tailoring school which gives a four-year tailoring programme. We take people at the age of 14 and at the end of the fourth year they graduate, after which, they do a year of internship and then they are assigned to different sections of our factory according to their technical skills and individual talents. Exceptional pupils become master tailors at Brioni. Most of our students are born in the region; Italians do not like leaving their homeland. And they like to work with a company like Brioni that is located in their area.

How huge is your company at global level? What is your ambition?
In 2010, we reached €170 million. We are not a big company but not a small one as well. It is a family-owned business going back to 1945. In 5 years, I would like to bring this company to €270-300 million. But the real objective in 3-5 years is to turn Brioni into a company that stands for Italian elegance by definition.

What is the most expensive suit that Brioni makes?
We have one single fabric that is so expensive that a suit made with that specific cloth will bring the price of a single suit to €25,000, but our starting price is €3,000. In India, the prices go 20% higher than that because of the duties we pay.

Source:Saturday, Mar 26, 2011,Shailaja Sharma,DNA

Tags:brioni, brioni franchise, francesco pesci, suit franchise, designer franchise, apparel franchise, garments franchise, badasaab, badasaab franchise,


This Blog/News/Press Release/Information is posted by Sparkleminds, A End To End Franchise Solutions Company, Based at Bangalore, India.We offer customized services to businesses seeking expansion through the franchise route and over the last decade have helped numerous clients to scale up their businesses.We also work closely on international master franchise expansions.Visit us on www.sparkleminds.com and speak to us, and we are sure you will be more than glad to understand how we could grow your existing business multi-fold times.

The Ikea Franchise and The Secret of Its Global Success.

THE paragraphs below are arranged randomly; you will have to assemble the finished article yourself.

Just kidding. But if you shop at IKEA, you are no doubt familiar with the hassle and frustration of assembling its flat-pack furniture at home. Millions of customers endure it, for two reasons: IKEA’s products are stylish and they are very, very cheap.

"We hate waste," says Mikael Ohlsson, who took over as chief executive of IKEA Group in September 2009. He points proudly at a bright-red “Ektorp” sofa. Last year his designers found a way to pack the popular three-seater more compactly, doubling the amount of sofa they could cram into a given space. That shaved €100 ($135) from the price tag—and significantly reduced the carbon-dioxide emissions from transporting it.

Thrift is the core of IKEA’s corporate culture. Mr Ohlsson traces it back to the company’s origins in Smaland, a poor region in southern Sweden whose inhabitants, he says, are “stubborn, cost-conscious and ingenious at making a living with very little”. Ever since Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943, the company has tried to allow “people with limited means to furnish their houses like rich people”.

IKEA presents itself as a green company with a social mission. Mr Ohlsson boasts of its charitable work and its aim to use only renewable energy. He says he wants his “co-workers” to be happy, honest and inclined to think for themselves. He is proud that 40% of the company’s 200 top managers are women.

Business is good (see chart). In the fiscal year 2010, IKEA’s sales grew by 7.7% to €23.1 billion and net profit increased by 6.1% to €2.7 billion. Conforama, Habitat and other rivals do not come close. IKEA’s strong brand and low prices helped it to weather the downturn, even though 80% of its sales are in crisis-hit Europe. In 2010 its sales rose by 8.2% in Spain and 11.3% in Italy. The firm is doing well in Bulgaria and Romania and planning to expand further in central and eastern Europe.

Thrifty Germans are IKEA’s best customers, accounting for 15% of sales. It has become part of German culture: in 2009 a Hamburg theatre staged an opera about it, “Wunder von Schweden” (“Miracle from Sweden”), a biography of the “furniture messiah” set to Swedish folk tunes.

Yet behind IKEA’s clean image is a firm that is very Swedish, secretive by instinct and, some say, rigidly hierarchical. All six members of the supervisory board are Swedish. (Mr Kamprad, at 84, is a senior adviser.) Over the years the company has been accused of using child labour in Asia and of buying feathers plucked from live geese. Journalists revealed that Mr Kamprad had backed a Swedish fascist group in his youth; he apologised in an open letter.

More recently, IKEA has had problems in Russia, where it has 12 stores. Having campaigned against corruption and even frozen its investments there for a while to protest against poor governance, last year IKEA was itself involved in a scandal. It had to sack two senior executives in Russia for allegedly turning a blind eye to bribes paid by a subcontractor to secure electricity supplies for its St Petersburg outlets.

When damaging news breaks, IKEA has an admirable habit of coming clean. But the firm’s ownership structure is opaque. Critics grumble that its set-up minimises tax and disclosure, handsomely rewards the Kamprad family and makes IKEA immune to a takeover. The parent for IKEA Group, which controls 284 stores in 26 countries, is Ingka Holding, a private Dutch-registered company. Ingka Holding, in turn, belongs entirely to Stichting Ingka Foundation, a Dutch-registered, tax-exempt, non-profit-making entity, which was given Mr Kamprad’s IKEA shares in 1982. A five-person executive committee, chaired by Mr Kamprad, runs the foundation.

The IKEA trademark and concept is owned by Inter IKEA Systems, another private Dutch company. Its parent company is Inter IKEA Holding, registered in Luxembourg. For years the owners of Inter IKEA Holding remained hidden from view and IKEA refused to identify them.

In January a Swedish documentary revealed that Interogo, a Liechtenstein foundation controlled by the Kamprad family, owns Inter IKEA Holding, which earns its money from the franchise agreements Inter IKEA Systems has with each IKEA store. These are lucrative: IKEA says that all franchisees pay 3% of sales as a royalty. The IKEA Group is the biggest franchisee; other franchisees run the remaining 35 stores, mainly in the Middle East and Asia. One store in the Netherlands is run directly by Inter IKEA Systems.

After the airing of the polemical documentary on Swedish TV, Mr Kamprad retorted that “tax efficiency” was a natural part of the company’s low-cost culture. Yet such diligent efforts to reduce the firm’s tax burden sit uncomfortably with IKEA’s socially conscious image. Mr Ohlsson is trying to defuse criticism of IKEA’s opacity by providing more information on its finances. Last year the firm published detailed figures on sales, profits, assets and liabilities for the first time ever.

Mr Ohlsson argues that IKEA is more competitive as a privately owned company. Instead of sweating to meet the quarterly targets the stockmarket demands, it can concentrate on long-term growth. Mr Ohlsson plans to double the pace of store openings in China, where IKEA already has 11 outlets. Undeterred by the firm’s headaches in Russia, he plans to open perhaps three more stores in the Moscow area in the next few years. Mr Ohlsson hopes to move into India when the retail market opens up there. He even sees room for expansion in Britain. An Englishman’s home is his castle, and castles need furniture.

Source:The economist, Feb 24 2011, Malma.

Tags: ikea franchise,ikea, furniture franchise,mikael ohlsson, ingvar kamprad,ingka holding, inter ikea systems, inter ikea holdings, interogo,


This Blog/News/Press Release/Information is posted by Sparkleminds, A End To End Franchise Solutions Company, Based at Bangalore, India.We offer customized services to businesses seeking expansion through the franchise route and over the last decade have helped numerous clients to scale up their businesses.We also work closely on international master franchise expansions.Visit us on www.sparkleminds.com and speak to us, and we are sure you will be more than glad to understand how we could grow your existing business multi-fold times.

What Should Small & Medium Sized Businesses Do For International Franchise Expansion.

Jeffery Adler, founder of Dlush, was running a funky chain of Southern California beverage joints when he got an interesting offer from a wealthy Kuwaiti family.

Jeffery Adler always knew he wanted to take his San Diego company global. He just didn't realize it would happen so soon.

In Southern California, Adler oversees three Dlush Beverage Joints, which serve fruit smoothies and café fare like pearl tea and powdered doughnuts in a setting Adler likens to MTV. Things changed a few years ago, after members of the Alghanim family, wealthy Kuwaitis who own many businesses in the Middle East, paid a visit to his flagship San Diego store while vacationing in the U.S. Later, the family contacted Adler about developing the Dlush concept in Kuwait and other areas in the Persian Gulf.

Adler found the proposal intriguing: It would give Dlush an immediate cash infusion of several hundred thousand dollars, long-term income (Dlush would receive a percentage of the new stores' gross revenue), and an immediate international presence. "There was a lot going for it," says Adler. So he accepted an invitation from the Alghanim family to travel to Kuwait to learn more about the proposition and the potential franchisee, Alghanim Sons Group, a large conglomerate that runs many restaurants and entertainment venues. After eight months of legal wrangling, Adler signed a 20-year agreement that allowed his new partners to develop an unlimited number of Dlush stores throughout six countries in the region.

There are now seven Persian Gulf Dlush stores, and Adler says he is happy with the deal. But it has proved more complex and more time-consuming than he first imagined.

An increasing number of businesses are grappling with the challenges of global expansion these days, as investors from the Middle East, Asia, and South America seek out U.S. brands and retail concepts to develop in their home markets. In a recent survey of franchise businesses by the International Franchise Association, or IFA, more than 75 percent of companies—the majority of them U.S. based—said they were planning to start or accelerate international projects over the next year.

Part of that shift can be explained by basic economic trends, says Scott Lehr, vice president of development for the IFA. As U.S. businesses cope with tight lending markets and a weak economy, many countries—including China, India, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates—still have strong consumer demand for American products, as well as investors flush with capital. Lehr says other factors have also played a role in facilitating international deals, including Skype and other technologies that have made international communication easier and cheaper, as well as increased travel to the U.S. by foreign visitors.

When a lucrative overseas deal suddenly emerges, it's important that company owners not lose their heads, says William Edwards, CEO of Edwards Global Services, an advisory firm that helps franchise companies develop international expansion strategies. "You have to look at where it makes sense to go, not just where there's a deal," says Edwards. "Think of this as an investment, because you'll be spending resources in terms of time, support, and actual costs."

The first thing any company considering a foreign franchise agreement should do is secure the brand's trademarks, says Edwards. Otherwise, a potential suitor could soon turn into a troublesome copycat. Once an agreement is in place, business owners need to get heavily involved in helping the international franchisee accurately replicate the company's core concept. That includes helping the new franchise set up a supply chain as well as laying out guidelines about product quality, the retail experience, and the prices. "The biggest challenge we see for small franchise businesses is that they can end up losing control of their brand," Edwards says.

In Adler's case, there were a few minor inconsistencies. In an audit of the new locations, he discovered that the Middle East franchises had been using a different espresso blend than had the California stores. Some things were adjusted for cost, says Shady Badawi, director of operations for Dlush's Middle East franchises. But the new blend, from the Italian brand Illy, is popular in the Middle East, says Badawi. "We've just tweaked a few things," he says. Badawi previously ran franchises for larger companies like Pizza Hut, where he says things were more tightly controlled. He views the arrangement with Dlush as more of a collaboration. "It's small," he says, "so that gives us a lot more freedom."

Adler also worries a little that the fresh, youthful vibe he has worked to cultivate at Dlush's Southern California locations can't really be duplicated in the Middle East, where the culture is more conservative. "In Southern California, someone walks into the store, and the guy behind the counter can say, 'Hey, whassup?' " says Adler. "Not there. It really has to stay toned down." Badawi acknowledges some differences but says, "The brand has been well accepted here. It's young—it's fresh and trendy."

But Adler's main concern is that the Middle Eastern stores have taken a lot of his time—and shifted his focus away from building the Dlush brand in his backyard. When Adler meets with potential new investors, he says, they often find Dlush's international venture intriguing, but they ask, "What else could you have been doing in the U.S. with your time and attention?"

Still, Adler can't deny the benefits of the franchise arrangement, especially the solid revenue stream the Middle East stores have provided. Even as U.S. customers cut spending during the recession, the Middle East stores remained profitable. Plus, the Kuwait team developed a smaller kiosk version of the Dlush store that Adler hopes to eventually roll out to U.S. movie theaters, fitness centers, and college campuses. Adler says the experience forced him to think about how to tailor the Dlush concept for areas beyond the West Coast. But for now, he wants to focus on expanding the company in Southern California. "Our message now is to really start paying attention to home base," he says.

Source:Inc.com,Ryan Underwood,Feb 1, 2011


This Blog/News/Press Release/Information is posted by Sparkleminds, A End To End Franchise Solutions Company, Based at Bangalore, India.We offer customized services to businesses seeking expansion through the franchise route and over the last decade have helped numerous clients to scale up their businesses.We also work closely on international master franchise expansions.Visit us on www.sparkleminds.com and speak to us, and we are sure you will be more than glad to understand how we could grow your existing business multi-fold times.

Advaya Hospitality Plans Its Global Lifestyle Hotel Brand 'Modo,' With A Musical soul.

Jan 27, 2011  

Advaya Hospitality has announced it will launch a global lifestyle hotel brand inspired by music.

MODO Hotel, will debut in major markets worldwide, starting with a minimum of five properties in India and another five in Brazil. Advaya is also is in the early stages of establishing a fund to acquire strategic assets and build new hotels, targeting major US markets like New York, Kansas City, and Miami, according to a statement by the company.

The brand is pitching itself as a stylish, affordable, and musically inspired hotel concept that will feature a Bauhaus loft design and a “vast collection of vinyl records, CDs, and MP3 content”.

It will also showcase independent artists around the globe, promising a unique and entertaining travel experience.

Full-service MODO hotels will house 100 or more rooms, a lively restaurant-lounge, courtyard, pool, meeting and event space, library, retail shop and gym. Rates will range from US $90 to $150 per night except in some larger gateway cities.

During the next three years, MODO aims to roll out in major metropolitan markets in Brazil.

The company behind the brand said that building costs for a full-service MODO hotel will be approximately $110,000 per key, including average land cost, with variations in major gateway cities. “That’s at least 20 percent less than those for other hotels in the same class,” added John Russell, CEO for MODO and Advaya.

Franchising is slated to begin later this year. Additional expansion is planned through acquisitions, new development, and conversions of existing properties. Among the target countries are China, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka.

Russell said MODO will appeal to tech-savvy business travellers who enjoy new and entertaining experiences.

Through a partnership with Downtown Music, LLC, MODO will offer guests access to thousands of tracks from independent artists worldwide. Guests will be able to peruse the custom-curated collection and download free music

“MODO will have a huge international focus,” said Chris Jones, Chief Development Officer for MODO and Advaya. “The language of music is universal. It cuts across borders, providing a way for people to do fun things together, making it a perfect fit for our new global brand.”

“While all properties will share design and music icons, MODO will have the flexibility to scale up or down depending on the demands of the site and the local market,” Jones explained

Source: Hotelier middle east . com, Jan 26 2011.

Tags:advaya hospitality, modo hotel, modo hotel franchise, lifestyle hotel franchise, john russell, Chris Jones, new hotel franchise, latest hotel franchise, innovative hotel franchise






This Blog/News/Press Release/Information is posted by Sparkleminds, A End To End Franchise Solutions Company, Based at Bangalore, India.We offer customized services to businesses seeking expansion through the franchise route and over the last decade have helped numerous clients to scale up their businesses.We also work closely on international master franchise expansions.Visit us on www.sparkleminds.com and speak to us, and we are sure you will be more than glad to understand how we could grow your existing business multi-fold times.