Foreign franchisors eye Vietnam market

Five years after opening market in line with World Trade Organisation (WTO) commitments on January 1, 2009, Vietnam has become a promising market for foreign franchisors, radio The Voice of Vietnam (VOV) reported.
Five years after opening market in line with World Trade Organisation(WTO) commitments on January 1, 2009, Vietnam has become apromising market for foreign franchisors, radio The Voice of Vietnam(VOV) reported.

Franchising essentially entails using a firm’sexisting business model in order to grow and has proven to be a highlysuccessful business model throughout the modernised world, thoughfranchising in Vietnam remains modest, in contrast to its potential.

PhamDuy Cuong, Director of the Sen Viet Production and Services Company,who is keen on franchising, says his company has studied the US Subwayfresh sandwich franchise with an eye to becoming a franchisee in Hanoi.

VOVquoted Cuong as saying that in difficult economic situations,franchising is considered a safe and effective way of doing business asless time is spent building a brand name, developing human resources,and setting up a supply chain.

In short, it isn’t necessaryto reinvent the wheel, Cuong says, the franchisor provides a completeroadmap for success on which a start-up venture can capitalise andthrive.

Just as importantly, the franchisor provides experiencedfinancial consultancy, further increasing chances for entrepreneurialsuccess, he says. Businesses in the food services sector are havingparticularly good success with the franchise model in Vietnam .

Foreigngroups such as – Lotteria from the Republic of Korea andMcDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut from the US – have been expanding theiroperations rapidly across Vietnam through franchising.

Additionally,supermarket and retail chains such as German Metro Cash & Carry andMalaysian Parkson have been capitalizing on the use of the franchisemodel to accelerate growth in Vietnam .

Recently, many Thaibusinesses have begun experimenting with the franchise model as a methodof penetrating the Vietnamese marketplace.

To effectivelycooperate with foreign franchise giants with strong international brandname recognition, it is essential for local businesses to have a wellthought out and carefully crafted business strategy, says Sean Ngo,Director General of the Vietnam Franchise Company.

Ngo adds theworld’s leading franchise agents are eyeing newly emerging markets likeChina and India . Furthermore, they are searching for enterprisingcooperation partners who possess a real passion and want to closelyattach to their brand names.

Since early 2013, morethan 200 brand names have registered to do franchising in Vietnam, andover 60 percent of them have operated successfully, says Nguyen TruongSon, Director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)branch in Ho Chi Minh City.

This is an astonishingly high successrate for start-up businesses proving the business model is effective inVietnam , Son says, adding, he is bullish on the strong developmentof the trend in the country.

There are many franchisors offeringexcellent ground floor opportunities for domestic partners to team up,especially in the larger cosmopolitan areas such as big cities at veryreasonable prices.

There are now around 300 restaurant and fastfood chains of both domestic and foreign businesses operating inVietnam . The world’s leading brand names like KFC, Jolibee, Lotteria,Pizza, Hurt, and Subway, which have been in Vietnam for more than 15years currently account for more than 40 percent of market share in theindustry.

The BBQ Chicken franchise, one of the world’s top 13leading brand names of Genesis group from the Republic of Korea,is a typical example. It presently has over 4,000 restaurants in morethan 50 countries around the globe. Since it first appeared in Vietnamin 2007, the BBQ Chicken franchise has increased to more than 20restaurants in Hanoi .

Sim Hwang Jin - BBQ Vietnam DirectorGeneral attributes the success to the company’s commitment to supplygood quality fast food, deserving of its motto “Best of the BestQuality”.

According to VOV, Albert Kong, President of theAsiawide Franchise, says Vietnam is still at the dawn of the franchisemovement and there is much promise on the horizon thanks to the allureof Vietnam as a good place to do business in the eyes of foreignbusinesses.

Kong attributes the appeal of Vietnam to the stable politics, the economy’s fast-paced growth and large consumer market.

Kongis confident that franchising will be a highly successful model fordoing business in Vietnam in the coming time. More internationalgroups will move to Vietnam in the future through franchising, hesays unhesitatingly.-VNA

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