io81

When searching the web for new opportunities i have came up with a new franchise called, Yogun Fruz. Its a yogurt joint that makes fresh yogurt mixed with fruits and smoothies too. Due to the healthy trend we are feeling all around the world, Yogun Fruz has taken a strong foothold in the franchise arena. I think its a smart franchise and something surely different than the ordinary Food chains or Juice Joints. I have contacted them by email just out of curiosity and i think they can franchise in Kuwait. The concept is very smart and simple, i guess tasty too but i do not know that( honestly it looks tasty:P). Even when you think of franchsing such a brand, it wont be that costly due to it’s simple operations of Yogurt making. Many such yogurt franchises are coming into the scene, from the states to Korea.

  

If you have visited malls around Kuwait like marina mall and Al muthanna mall, you surly have seen Prontowash. A smart franchise that would work perfectly in Kuwait. Because we have 9 months of summer and that nearly includes 2 out of 7 days of dust, pronto wash is solution and a selling business. They rent out space in malls (in the parking) and charge you a minmum of 4kd to wash your car, a bit expensive but surly worth it. Why go to shuwaikh to wash your car, when it can be done when your shopping in malls now. 4 kd a car by appx 9 cars a day that would equal 36 kd a day multiplied by 30 days amounting to 1080kd a month minimum. Very profitable but one problem with such a business, how to approach the stubborn minded mall managers. Unless you got some sort of personal relationship with them i guess its hard to enter such a environment. The owner of such a franchise in Kuwait is Al Wazzan group the same that own the ford dealership, surly a strong player in the market. I guess if your not backed by such a group your franchise may never see the light of day!

Before 3 years ago, i found an Australian franchise called Cartridge World. Looked interesting so i researched it a bit more and then started contacting them. I even found a perfect store in Kuwait city to open the first branch. Let me explain what the franchise does: it takes the empty ink cartridges of any printer and refills it for you for half the price of the original. A smart idea honestly due to the expense of the cartridges, especially the non laser cartridges. And if you are wondering why the first ink cartridge that comes with the printer originally never last because they only fill a quarter of it. HP and other giants make there profits from the ink not from the printer it self. A good laser printer costs 230KD and the ink toner all cost a whopping 145KD. So after that phase i thought of making my market study and look what i found out: a huge Kuwaiti factory in thajeej area that refills empty cartridges and sells them back to the ministries in Kuwait, this small plant is selling for all the ministry printers in Kuwait, so now the only target in my head is the consumer yes? well the Kuwaiti consumer has been dissatisfied and have already heard about such a service from small shops in Hawali that claim they refill the printer cartridge for less than half the price. But because of there unprofessional methods, the printers later on break down due to the ink cartridges sold by them. At this point many consumer that i have talked to where dissatisfied and do not trust any store that claims he can refill your ink cartridge. After such research i have contacted the franchiser and explained to them that i wont be taking up the franchise in Kuwait in due time, and may contact them in a later date. So just to show you folks that you got to understand the market, the consumer and what he thinks of such a service. Because i searched for the consumers feeling and perception, i understood it may be very hard to persuade them again into trusting my franchised service. But some did go for the franchise and a store opened in the same area i wanted to open the first store, Kuwait city infront of the Blockat area.  

I have explained before how companies take a step ahead to enter new markets, well now i understand why Sultan Center Kuwait made a move and acquired the Wasabi brand from Good Food company. Wasabi will branch out now in the GCC region becoming a Kuwaiti chain going regional, and offcourse Sultan Center management are smart, because they can easily handle such business because of there background in food handleing / operations and retailing. Plus they are expanding too, GCC wise. So why not support other brands like Wasabi. Imagine how many countless malls are popping up in Kuwait, now imagine Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and UAE. This may surly take some years to complete, but when done who can compete against them. Creating a brand, recruiting chefs from Green valley in the Philippines now turned into a GCC chain. So what does Good Food company do with the 5million KD buyout, create more brands i guess. Some start to think why did i not come up with such a concept, looks fairly simple yah. Well the same idea came to a guy in Good Food company, but he had the resources to support his idea, and you too can. These business venture are not a one man show but a whole orgnizational project, when i  say resources i mean financial resources, these plus experties etc etc..but hold on; these financial resource are a well studied plan with loans but from a business structure not the ones you take from your branch. So what i’m saying here is that when you’ve got a strong feasible idea, dont be afraid to follow it through and you may be surprised where you end up, 6al7a most probably:P 

Dubai, is an amazing place and fast changing every time i visit. You visit London you get bombarded by ads, you watch CNN you get bombarded again, and its worth the hype. I went there for supervising a franchise purchase for a chocolate store, a friend is opening a chocolate store here in Kuwait and the franchise owner is a Lebanese but Dubai based. See if you got a passion for something you can make a lot of money from it, its sounds simple but complex when going into the business it self, the franchiser buys big bulks of Belgium chocolate, melts it in his small factory, makes a certain mix then into the molds. Some with fruits, wafer, biscuits, ice cream and much more, it all depends on your imagination. Then get delivered to the shop for sale, offcourse adding the small amenities and selling with a higher profit margin. Then you get the baby showers basket, wedding basket, getting well basket. Now the founder is franchising to a Kuwaiti owners and expanding to Qatar too. Dubai laws and regulations have a large effect on his success, the ease in customs and private business ownership. Because the business entirely lies on the importing of chocolate from Belgium then a fast moving customs house must be in place. Just to let you in the picture here, Kuwait custom house is like soug el j/yuma3a:P whatever. You see the more centralized the country the slower it progresses, but as it looks Dubai takes decision in a blink of an eye and thats what we need here, not a 6 month ordeal of fighting and who’s is going to steal the next deal. Another thing that might help is that i have traveled by using my civil id. Thats the only benefit we have as GCC countries, i did not use my passport once, nor did any airport ask for it. and it was processed faster than the normal passport method, go figure:) sorry for not posting the last couple of days.

The Italian founder British based franchise, costa coffee has been sold to khorafi group. I got the news over the weekend, that kharafi group bought all costa coffee chains in Kuwait from its original owner, KASCO. Its the catering company servicing Kuwait Airways. So whats the benefit of such a deal: khorafi group can introduce a new coffee chain or any other chain for that matter, they may even replace costa coffee with Krispy Kremes, or they may keep the costa brand. Such a deal is beneficial because instead of khorafi going around Kuwait buying off different people and each of them asking for different buy out payments ”Kholou”. He just makes one bulk purchase and buys all costa coffee outlets around Kuwait. At the end, this deal what ever the price attached is cheaper than buying independant store’s. Smart move by khorafi group to introduce what ever they want into the ever expanding food sector in Kuwait!The same deal was done by subway, if you remember well, most subway store in co-op now use too be the old restaurant “Beep Beep”. Same thing happened, al mutairy, present owner of subway bought out beep beep owner al 3ameri, and moved in subway in most co-ops. Thats the advantage of capital when available, you just move in and buy others out.  

Most of you out there had thought of opening up a store that you have encountered some where around the world, some said, i talked to Cheese Factory, the other thought about a coffee chain in Germany. The truth is its not that simple, i had my share with different franchises and read many contracts, the things that people do not understand is the commitment required in such ventures. I’ll explain by giving different examples: if its a restaurant chain, most probably you have to setup a training location, then you may be asked to open a central kitchen, and may have to sign a paper promising that you’ll open 15 stores with the next 5 years. Other require you to buy food only from them, meaning that the meat has to come from their supplier in the states and most probably they own it too. Second Cup gets most of its drinks, coffee and sauces from Canada, this requires handling in Kuwait customs and Ministry of Health, these issues take long time to process. Some ask for high franchise fees, this fee goes strait for the franchiser and you get nothing for it, then you have the royalty fee’s that you pay monthly out of your sales! meaning even before taking you pay rent and other expenses. Then most franchises will not open in Kuwait unless you prove that you own property and large amount of cash, and have the man power to start the business, they wont except to open one store and communicate all the way from the states. Some even request a master franchise, this requires larger investment and a full time job. The master franchise is the one that resells small franchisees, this is very time consuming experience and need professional assistance. Most franchises do not show you how much they are making in different parts of the world, if they did you would be surprised. I’m saying all this because i wanted to open a franchise, and it took me a year in research and even traveled to the franchisers country. A minimum investment for franchising requires atleast 35,000kd and thats on for buying the right to open such a store in Kuwait, thats not even including the location in Kuwait (Avenue mall request about 70,000kd for a store), rent and employees. So when even thinking of such an investment keep in mind what i have said.

Well, every body knows the body shop, yes? A new franchise called Lush, is following the same path, but with a different twist. Using all fresh ingredients in its soap, i mean fresh like, coconut, seaweed, mint, ginger , papaya, lemon and a lot more. I’ve tryed it my self, really great product. These guys are expanding everywhere and are looking for franchisees. Check out their website and how many kinds of soaps they have. They have other products like masks and scrubs and all these products use only fresh ingredients. The one thing that i noticed is, that Kuwait or international, there is no shop or company servicing such products for men, okay i don’t mean masks and moisturizers, maybe shaving creams and cool looking razors or soaps and shower gels! www.lush.com