On February 5, 2016, Domino’s Pizza opened its 1000th store in India, the only country outside of the U.S. with 1,000 Domino’s stores. Dunkin’ Donuts opened with one store in India in April 2012; and the company now has 67 Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in the country. Even, Anytime Fitness Gym plans to open 50 more outlets in the coming months. Each of these franchises is taking advantage of the huge growth business opportunities in India.
Moreover, franchising is growing faster than any other sector of the Indian economy; thus, leading to increase in the number of franchise jobs. As a business model, franchising is well suited to India’s business environment, because there are no laws that specifically regulate a franchise business. However, the greatest obstacle involves the inflexible foreign investment rules.
The Indian government considers retail to be either multi brand or single brand. Most franchisors fall into the single brand category. As of September 2012, the government allowed up to 100% foreign investment in single brand retail. However, single brand ventures with more than 51% foreign investment must be locally sourced with at least 30% of the value of goods purchased from Indian firms.
Despite the challenges, numerous international franchisors have been extremely successful in India. The most successful have entered the Indian market and have made their products and services adaptive to the people. The concept of breakfast on the go does not exist in India like in US where majority of the sales happen between 6am to 8am when people stop for breakfast. So instead, the company targeted the 50% of Indians who are under 35 years old with their slogan – Get your mojo back! In addition to this, more than half of the Dunkin’ Donuts in India has changed the menu to suit local tastes.
Industries with the best possibility for successful franchising in India include; retail, food and beverages, education and training, health and beauty, consumer services and many more. Furthermore, other franchise industries including apparel, travel and tourism, and business and financial services have also gained some success in the recent years.
Interested in opening a franchise business in India? Browse through FranchiseZing.com or call on +91-9717899733 for all your franchise consultation needs.