Rio Franchising market advances and networks adapt business to the state

Considered a hub of the franchising sector in the national territory, the State of Rio de Janeiro becomes fertile ground for the expansion of brands. With the resumption of the price of the square meter of the large centers, networks elaborate new business models and bet on the customization of the operation to the culture of the Fluminense. "The city of Rio de Janeiro is a milestone in the franchising sector, considering that proportionally the value of the brands located in the state is greater than in São Paulo, the richest member of the Federation. Even with the crises we have experienced, when the GDP [gross domestic product] drops 3.8%, franchising showed resilience at the site and recorded growth of 5%, "said Beto Filho, director of the Brazilian Franchising Association (ABF). In this sense, a sample of Network of franchises with intense presence in the territory of Rio de Janeiro is iGUI – specializing in the sale and cleaning of swimming pools. "Rio de Janeiro is the second largest swimming pool market in Brazil. Our goal is to open 30 more maintenance and pool cleaning franchises up to 2020. We realized that there was a certain slowdown in the process of opening new stores of iGUI in the period of crisis. This made our other brand [TRATABEM], focused on cleaning pools, won scale, "said the director of the business arm, Lilian Marques, highlighting that the Cariocas chose to perform the maintenance of the old pool instead of buying another new one. For the executive, the Carioca market has peculiarities. Among them, is the average ticket of cariocas in relation to the care of the swimming pool in other regions of Brazil and also the need for training employees and standardizing the operation in the state. "There are many blows of bandits inside the condos in Rio and this has caused the requirement to standardize our cleaning operations," she added. For Lilian, another relevant aspect to emphasize is that the spending of cariocas with swimming pool is 30% higher than the rest of Brazil. Finally, the executive tells the intention of the network to diversify more and more the places of action. She tells that there has been a resumption of rental prices since the end of 2018, a factor that promoted a yada of the business towards other places, such as petrol stations for malls with high vacancy rate. The net turnover was R $500 million last year. For this year, the expectation is to grow 10%. In the same line of reasoning, the director of business development of Bob's Food Network, Marcelo Tristao, says it is interesting to launch seasonal products and bet on local products from next year. According to him, due to the fact that the company has built the history in Rio de Janeiro, the range of consumers ' age range is higher in relation to other regions of Brazil. "While our majority audience are young and young adults in various states, here in Rio this range is expanded also for the elderly public," he said. For him, there is room for the opening of more units in the State, in view that about 30% of the net turnover comes from Rio. "The delivery model has opened doors for our operation, in order to reach markets where we do not operate. In addition, there is interest in the internalization of the State as well, due to the recovery of rental prices in the largest centers, "he says. Throughout the national territory, Bob's has 1050 stores. In a similar perspective as outlined by the Director of development of Bob's, the CEO of the network Espetto Carioca, Bruno Gororicht, reveals that the tool to expand in the market of Rio de Janeiro is precisely to expand the business formats and focus on high-power neighborhoods Purchasing. "We begin to understand the regional public better by means of a menu adaptation. In addition to the search for gains with opening new stores, our strategy is to elevate the individual gains of each unit, "he said, noting that the network will close 2019 with revenues of R $83 million. /* The reporter traveled at the invitation of ABFRio