Nearly 40 brands participate in 22nd Cebu Franchise Expo

CEBU, Philippines —  The Filipino International Franchise Association (FIFA) opened its 22nd Cebu Franchise Expo with close to 40 brands offering franchise opportunities.

“The interest is very good and we have more than 100 interested people for this coming Saturday. To make it a more global appeal so Cebuanos living abroad can join we decided to conduct at the Cebu franchise page in Facebook,” said FIFA president Rudolf Kotik.

Kotik, expert in franchising and founder or RK Franchise Consultancy will give a seminar in franchising a business on October 9 at 2 pm via Facebook.

“The interesting part about franchising is that 80 percent of our present developments are clients who have set up their business during the pandemic, which is attractive also to prospective Franchisees because those businesses, mostly in the food sector, are therefore pandemic proven,” he added.

At the start of 2021, Kotik said interest in franchising had a surge, but it was dumped later on by the delta variant and the restrictions due to ECQ and MECQ.

However, with the lifting of restrictions “we foresee the next surge of franchise buyers.”

Surprisingly, he said comparing the first quarter 2019 (pre-pandemic), to first quarter 2021, interest of people to start franchise business improved in pandemic era.

Kotik reiterated that the pandemic has surprisingly brought opportunities for business, especially for new food concepts.

“Surprisingly, franchising is doing very well. What happened that during the pandemic many new companies came up, particularly in the food sector that are now considering franchising,” he said.

On one hand, buying a franchise business at this time is “much easier than ever,” because of technology.

Interest in franchise in both sides franchisor and franchisee has increased, he added as more people are investing on small businesses, putting their savings on sound investments.

“If you are Cebu based and want to buy a franchise from Manila or any other place, you do not need to fly to apply since all interviews are online now and Franchisor give discounts in Franchise Fees. Finding available locations is also easier with so many “for rent” spaces available and quite a number of landlords are giving discounts,” he noted.

Also, other new normal franchisees are also utilizing their own properties to open up small franchise business, a huge savings from rental.

The pandemic may have devastated businesses in the last few months especially in 2020, but Kotik said he is seeing a good recovery track ahead, as people are now starting to move.