Singing Pig

My partner and I are considering a CEX franchise. I have 6 years retail experience, if only on a shopfloor level, in a high street jewellery shop

 My partner has 8 years management experience at Morrisons and an electrical wholesaler, so neither in the games/computing sector. However, this is where our passion lies.

You need to have 40K capital and then a further 160K for shop fitting which seems high, but the figures appear to suggest a large T/O to cover this.

 Just wondered if anyone had any experience of this particular franchise

Hi Sara,

I too am thinking of starting a CEX franchise. I have been to see the franchise director, he gave me the brochure and some figures for the shops. The figures seem really good, however I am going to check the other franchisees before I do anything.

They have approx 50 shops, I think 4 of them are franchised by only two franchisees (at that time, approx NOV 07 time) The franchise director seemed like a genuine guy, but again im going to do more due dilligince before i do anything.

Thats all the info I have at the moment.

Let me know if you get any further I would be very appreciative if you could share your experiance in dealing with them.

Hi There,

 I also looked into this franchise last year, but i found it to be quite a large investment, im now considering opening i similar kind of shop to CEX in my local town as as it will be so much cheaper to do than take up a franchise with them!

Hi Marty,

I looked at their expenses which are quite high, but the majority of it is for stock. I approx 50-60k. The shop fit is a bit on the expensive side, but after speaking to them they are happy to let me make savings where i can. The Franchise fee itslef is 20 - 40k I think. so the whole thing would need at least 150k. Which is a hell of a lot of money!

Ive seen CEX's shop figures and they roughly all have over 600k turnover. Any thoughts on if these figures are over inflated?

Hi Fas,

I reckon some of there stores do turnover amounts like that,  if i could raise the funding i may well be interested myself, but i reckon you could go it alone les than half the cost!

Which is what im looking into doing!

Hi Marty,

When I talked to them they said you need 40k liquid capital, I have been saving for a while and continue to do so. I will be going in with two business bartners so the capital required would be divided by three. Any idea how difficult it would be to get a bank loan to cover the rest of the amount?

Fas,

With that kind of money saved im sure it shouldnt be much of a problem getting a business loan! although it will take a chunk out of you profits every month to pay it all back!

Myself i could justify investing that sort of money! i still reckon £40k will be more than enough to start up a similar business to rival them after all, you look into the company reputation and it never gets much praise!

What area are you looking at opening a store?

Regards

MARTY

Hi Marty,

 When you say company reputation, what do you mean? Do they not have a good rep on the high street or with franchisees?

 If I were to start it would ahev to be in west london where I currently live. Im near the Hammersmith so any where around that area i suppose.

 I just thought that starting with CEX would be easier for me as i have no experience of running a store like CEX. I have looked into starting one myself but the lack of experience i have has made me a little cautious of going it alone.

 How about you, are you going it alone and what area would you decide on?

Kind Regards

 Fas