Issue 2 2019

22 Acquisition International - Issue 2 2019 1809AI45 Francorp Middle East is the largest franchise consulting firm in the MENA region. Following their success in the AI 2018 Global Excellence Awards, we caught up with Francorp ME Chairman, Imad Charaf Eddine who provided us with a detailed insight into the inner-workings of the successful firm. irstly, please can you tell us a bit about Francorp, the work you do and the types of clients with whom you work. Francorp is the world’s oldest and largest franchise development firm established in 1976 in Chicago USA. For more than 46 years, Francorp’s role has been to discover special businesses, determine how they can benefit from franchising, and then provide the strategies and services that enable them to optimize their concept. What makes Francorp so unique, and our clients so successful, is that we provide all the franchise resources a business needs, through the seamless and coordinated efforts of an in-house team of experts. We are able to save our clients time, money and the stress of trying to manage everything on their own. Francorp services aremany.We provide services to existing franchisors and new potential franchisors in franchise structure development, franchise sales, training and support, franchise management training and last but not least, our on-going franchise development services and consultations. Over the years, Francorp has assisted more than 15,000 companies planning for expansion, and we have developed more than 5000 full franchise development programs. With its Head Quarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Francorp Middle East has the strongest regional presence in the franchise industry; having developed the franchise systems and structures of over 1000 brands across the GCC, Levant, Turkey, Egypt as well as other international markets in its 15 years of operation. The beauty of franchising as a business expansion method, is that it is not limited to specific brands or specific industries. Any business in any sector can be franchised and our client list proves that, we have worked with businesses ranging from hospitals to funeral homes and everything in between. Our clientele spans across many industries and geographies: Internationally for companies such as such as McDonald’s, Living Well, Rapid Care, Rotter & Krauss, Mad Science Group, Tutoring Club, Primrose Schools, Academy of Learning, D&K Stores, Ace Hardware, Hallmark Cards, 21 Century Real Estate, Holiday Inn, Hyatt Regency, 3M, IBM, Xerox, Nestle, Johnny Rocket’s, Jollibee, Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches, Shell, and BP to name a few. Regionally in the Middle East for companies such as Emarat, Sedar, Fine, Danube Home, SASCO, Jones the Grocer, Black Tap, Eggspectation, Kcal, Pharmacy1, Hello Kitty, DAMAS, Malabar Gold & Diamonds, Champion Cleaners, Kids Academy, Filli Cafe, Broccoli Pizza, Under500, Global Catering Services, Landmark Hotels, First Stop and many more. Francorp : The Franchising Leader F “...we help such businesses through carrying out a diagnostic analysis to determine their areas of weakness and transform them into a franchisable business through an in-depth analysis of their financial model, business model, operational model and organizational model.”