Franchising Expo 2010

EXHIBITION FOR A NEW BUSINESS

FRANCHISING EXPO 2010

26-27 November, National Palace of Culture, Sofia

The second exhibition for new business in Bulgaria was held in Sofia on 26 – 27 November in Hall 3 of the National Palace of Culture. The visitors at Franchising Expo 2010, over 2700 entrepreneurs from all over the country, learned about the opportunities to start own business offered by over 50 international and Bulgarian franchise chains. Main partners of the exhibition were Eurofootball and Investor.bg, and a general sponsor for a second consecutive year was Subway, world №1 franchise according to Entrepreneur Magazine.

On the first day of the most significant for franchising in Bulgaria event the conference “Franchising business” took place and lecturers were international specialists in franchising and their Bulgarian colleagues. Among them were Tony Fitzpatrick – member of the Board of Directors of the Irish Franchise Association, Sotiris Yannakakis, master in franchise law from Harvard University and General Manager of the Greek Franchise Association, Kalin Ganev, Marketing Director of Eurofootball. Also, Constantin Anton – President of the Romanian Franchise Association and First Vice President of the Black Sea Franchise Association, as well as David Holland CEO of ActionCOACH, the biggest company for business coaching in the world with over 1000 offices in 32 countries.

The conference was attended by 248 people: managers of companies offering or developing own franchise systems, owners and directors of small and medium sized companies from all over Bulgaria, specialists and experts in franchising and entrepreneurs interested in starting new business by buying a franchise.

The conference was opened by Svetoslav Biliarsky, manager of Franchising.bg and organizer of Franchising Expo. The presentation of Tony Fitzpatrick, who during the entire exhibition provided free advice to the interested ones, was dedicated to how, in fact, to develop our business into a franchise chain. Sotiris Yannakakis addressed the legal basis of franchising and introduced the audience to the latest directives of the European Union. In the conference Kalin Ganev – Marketing Director of Eurofootball – the biggest Bulgarian franchise company with 744 units in 220 populated areas, took part and revealed the methods for adapting the world franchise practice to the Bulgarian environment. The Portuguese Ivo Crisostomo from National Business Brokers commented on the main steps for selecting an appropriate new business and its initial development.

At the Franchising.bg party, held at the end of the first day in club Mascara, the guests could share experience with franchisors, consultants and other guests from 9 countries and make contacts with potential partners. Advice on how to sell franchise, were given by Christophe Angleys, Commercial Director of Franchise Expo Paris – the biggest franchise exhibition in the world with 450 exhibitors.

After the second day of Franchising Expo 2010 Angel Stoyanov from Don Domat said that the following year he would need a team of at least four members to cope with the flow of stand visitors willing to discuss the opportunity. Ivan Todorov from Subway shared that the interest in their franchise was great and at that moment they were selecting their last franchise partners in Bulgaria so after closing the planned 40 franchise contracts in Bulgaria they would redirect their operations to the Romanian market. Kalin Ganev from Eurofootball made a joke: “I have never believed that the Bulgarian franchise with the greatest number of units will generate such interest. The exhibition will only increase our workload”.

Franchising Expo 2010 was twice as big as the preceding one – with twice more exhibitors, twice more foreign lecturers, and twice more visitors. For the first time also a module with multilevel (network) marketing companies was included at the exhibition.

In 2010 Franchising Expo opened doors for the Bulgarian business to the world by initiating stands exchange with the franchise exhibitions in Dubai, HHHungary, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Argentina, etc. This means that from next year on Bulgarian franchises will be able to present themselves and recruit partners at the exhibitions in those countries.