Restaurant business today is one of the most developed around the world, including our country. Hundreds of institutions collect billions of dollars - and thousands of people earn on this.
In the field of public catering, there is one excellent form of interaction between companies, which is based on the transfer of the right to use the brand from one business entity to another. It is called franchising and in essence is a transfer of rights to a particular trademark. In a market where the brand under which the institution operates plays a significant role, this form of interaction is extremely effective. That is why today, if you want to open your own institution, it will be more advisable to think about working with a franchise than to promote your own brand from scratch.
In this article we will talk about one fairly well-known restaurant chain operating around the world. This is Subway, the largest fast food chain.
About restaurants
In the world, establishments of this brand appeared quite a long time ago - back in the late 70s of the twentieth century. The success story associated with the founding of the network is very similar to the model by which similar establishments developed. The entrepreneur started from scratch, after which his restaurant chain became successful throughout the country (USA), and then grew on other continents.
Russia is no exception: the network appeared here in 2004. At Subway, the franchise currently has about 630 restaurants - they are managed by about 300 entrepreneurs and companies operating under the transfer of brand rights. In total, the network is represented in 130 cities of our country.
Why is it profitable?
In fact, to answer the question of what is the benefit and why to acquire the right to use someone else’s brand, if you can create your own, you do not need to - you can understand everything already by evaluating the statistics and figures given above. It is one thing to establish a network of cafes that are not known to anyone, which still has to invest in promotion, and it is a completely different thing to manage a restaurant known around the world.
If you are starting a new catering point, you will need to make it noticeable. In contrast, the Subway franchise allows you not to think about such things - people themselves will invite their friends to visit a new institution, which is part of a large network. Work with a well-promoted brand is much easier. For this reason, the Subway franchise is in demand. Its price, by the way, is relatively low, if we take into account the success of the company and its reputation in the market.
Conditions
True, operating a restaurant under the guise of a well-known brand, it is necessary to follow certain conditions. They exist in order to control the quality of work of each institution with which the franchisee works. In the end, these rules form the overall image of the company, its reputation, level of service.
For example, a Subway franchise is available for a fee. These are fixed contributions that must be made by the owners of a brand-name restaurant. And also there are requirements for the establishment, suppliers and cooking technology. The first ones contain norms regarding the area of premises, their sizes, location, design and the like. The second is a list of companies with which the franchisee is allowed to cooperate (this includes contractors whose product quality is quite high). As for food requirements, each user of the franchise is provided with special instructions on how orders should be prepared, on which equipment, and so on. All this and a ton of other information is received by those who purchase the Subway franchise.
Requirements
The premises in which franchisees can place restaurants under the Subway sign must meet a number of conditions. The first is the area. It should be equal to at least 80-100 meters in order to accommodate a sufficient number of visitors. Secondly, the special construction of the building, which should include display windows located in 2 rows. At the same time, the building itself should be located on the 1st floor.
As for the height of the premises, it should be equal to 3 meters; in addition, water and electricity are required to the kitchen department, as well as the presence of ventilation, air conditioning, Internet and telephony systems.
Property selection
An interesting point, which is noted by the conditions of the Subway franchise, is the opportunity to receive recommendations from company representatives about affordable real estate for rent in the city of interest to you. It turns out that an entrepreneur who is interested in working under such a scheme will act as an investor: he will be provided with all the necessary source data and even pick up an object for doing business.
Cost
All the information that is presented regarding cooperation with Subway (the franchise and its features, characteristics and conditions) has long been known to those who are interested in opening their own business under a foreign brand. Another issue is the price of such cooperation (the amount of contributions that a franchisee entrepreneur must make). The official website of the company in Russia shows the amount after which everyone can try how the franchise works in Subway. The cost of initial cooperation with the network, according to this information, is $ 12,000 (excluding VAT); and the opening of subsequent restaurants: 9 (for the second) and 6 thousand - for the third (and further) food outlets. Thus, in total, the entrepreneur needs to prepare about 14 thousand dollars to start. This amount will cost the Subway franchise for those who start for the first time.
In addition, every month those working under the guise of this network must pay 8 percent of royalties to Subway.
How much does it cost to open a restaurant?
So, how much does the Subway franchise cost, you find out. Now, for those who are interested in the opportunity to run their own restaurant, you should provide information about the cost of promoting an institution from scratch in full.
As indicated on the official website, based on the features of starting a business in a particular locality or region, it is necessary to spend about 4-6 million rubles to open your own restaurant. More information about what is included in these costs is written on the company's website.
Reviews
Finally, the recommendations of those who have already managed to launch their own fast food restaurant are also available on the company's official portal and beyond. Reviews on the Subway franchise look pretty positive. Entrepreneurs with experience working with the network note that they have managed to build a profitable profitable business that fights off several years after the start. Due to this, working with Subway is quite an interesting investment. The growth rate of the number of restaurants in the Russian Federation proves this. Plus, many entrepreneurs in private forums say that cooperation with this food network can compete with McDonalds, the No. 1 catering company.
However, even here there are certain nuances regarding franchise work. We managed to find some negative reviews about how the company works in Russia. In particular, there are complaints about the management of the department (which supposedly has a "too Russian" mentality and has little interest in the affairs of the franchisee), and there are also outrages about the company's insufficiently transparent policy. So, according to some reviews, Subway managers do not provide contact details of other franchisees until a potential partner signs the documents and pays the entry fee (12 thousand dollars, which we talked about above).However, there is another point of view, according to which the company carefully monitors the activities of each restaurant and even makes some adjustments and suggestions for improving the service. Therefore, even on the issue of how franchise buyers are supported, it is definitely difficult to say anything.
We can take a look at the statistics - one out of every 10 Subway establishments in Russia closes. The reasons for this are different - lack of experience, insufficiently visited place, incorrect approach to organization and so on. Therefore, it cannot be said that starting a business of this format is guaranteed success.
