Global Franchising and Licensing Services

We have become very active in the past several years in assisting our hospitality and retail clients with their international expansion through a franchising and licensing model. While this model has less risk, it still creates significant challenges to the brand owner.

The majority of international franchising deals fail to meet the development goals stated in the initial legal agreements and can often end in divorce. This is usually some combination of poor partner selection, unrealistic expectations on the part of the franchisor, supply chain constraints, and a poor store-level economic model.  Most of these risks can be assessed and managed before any agreement is signed.

We often recommend the brand owner to take some risk to open a few stores in new strategic markets to fine-tune the concept in terms of consumer attractiveness and store-level economics and then begin a sub-franchising program where & when it makes sense.  We are taking this approach now for our Korean, Japanese and Mexican clients in the USA market, where they see significant development potential for their concepts. 

Our long term relationships with the leading foodservice and retail operators in key regions enable us to identify the best partners for a particular concept and ensure that the parties are aligned in terms of responsibilities and expectations, thereby increasing significantly the probability of a long term successful partnership.