The Johor, Malaysia-based company, founded in 1981, now has over 100 company-owned and franchised fast food restaurants in Malaysia, China, Singapore, Brunei, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). There are 95 company-owned and franchised outlets throughout the peninsula. Overseas, it has 16 franchises in China, seven in southern India, two in Brunei, three in the UAE and one in Singapore.
The company had also been negotiating with several parties interested in becoming master franchisees in Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, Iran, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Russia, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam.
According to Liew, the company has laid a five-year programme starting from this year to open franchised outlets in these places.
"Initially, it is not easy to convince foreigners to take up our master franchisee deal as they always compare us with the US-based fried chicken company," Chan said. But at the same time, she said, they were quite impressed with MarryBrown's overseas expansion programme since 1986 despite having to compete with the fast food giants, especially from the US.
Chan said that sealing the contract for the master franchisee was not just a matter of getting money from the licensee but also included help finding the right location, recruiting frontline staff, logistics, lining up the menu and investigating the existing players in the market. She also went onto say that whenever they were on business trips overseas they would patronise as many fast food joints as they could, in order to see what other players were offering to their customers in terms of pricing and serving portions, and tailor their own offerings accordingly.
No comments:
Post a Comment