Singing Pig

Hi all,

Have any one you had experience in dealing with Budgens, Spar or costcutter in terms of franchising their name or buying an already running store?

What was it like? Are they good to deal with or quite the opposite? Costly?

Any kind of experiences on these you can share would be appreciated.

Cheers

Cem 

I know a little about Spar, tell me exactly what you thinking of doing and I should be able to give you some useful information.

Hey there - I am looking into setting up a retail franchise with my brother - brother already has alot of newsagent/grocery experience so this kind of franchise would be perfect but I wanted to get an idea of what going into these franchises entail.

So for Spar, do they let you take over a running Spar Store shop or are you expected to bring them a store which they 'convert' into a spar store? their requirements to qualify you to buy the franchise?

anything you have on them I guess would be great!

Cheers 

Hi

No direct experience of those but I used to be involved in a local petrol station group that had c-stores attached.

Talk to some existing shops locally to see what their experience is. Remember that the local wholesaler is likely to vary, so service will vary alongside it. Also see whether there are any "bad" shops locally that could taint the image of your chosen brand.

Find out what the ongoing fees are - advertising contributions, etc.

Remember there are also national wholesalers like P&H (who offer Mace from memory) & Key Lekkerland.

Once you get over a certain turnover, wholesale prices won't be much different regardless of which chain. Promotions may vary once you get beyond the standard Mars/Coke/etc ones.

Ask about over-riders and whether these are related to display agreements.

Find out what promotional support and help you'll be offered. Check with other local shops to find out how ongoing that it and whether the promises are likely to be met.

Check with your news wholesaler what their requirements are if your chosen location hasn't already got news.

Does your chosen location have potential for bake-off? Does it already offer national lottery? Can it get an off licence? All these help the customer count & margin mix.

Also look into the costs of a decent p-o-s system and the back office that goes with it. Again, does your wholesaler offer support and advice on this and do they offer files in a format your system uses so you can keep prices up to date. 

Remember also that you'll need a decent turnover to make money after you've paid a manager (unless you like working 7 days a week, 365 days a year) met wages, shrinkage, etc.

Done well, retail pays well (ask Tesco).

Trevor 

P.S. You may decide to go for a new store, build up the turnover (sacrificing profit) and then sell to one of the chains.  This was done by someone locally a few years ago for a very nice profit.

   

 Spar are looking to off-load a number of their stores which are manager run, imo better than a franchise. Basically they have decided that any of their own stores with takings much under £25000 / week would be far more profitable to them owner driven. Get in touch with them and see what they can offer you, an aquaintance of mine got a pretty good deal from them with of course the obvious commitment to spar built in. Don't be afraid to push them hard for best posible deal!

There is one franchise shop in town, purpose built and looks a nice store but for me franchises nearly always give the easy profits to the parent never the franchisee. When I was in retail I looked at a number of symbol's to tie myself to and rejected Costcutter completely but I cannot comment on their franchises. Budgens I think are now merged with Londis ( the symbol group I joined) and owned by an Irish retail group, I liked Londis when a member but the set up has vastly changed since then. Worth looking at I would think.

Guys thanks very much - very useful indeed

Cem