Interested in operating a tanning salon franchise? How about a store selling wireless hardware, or a women's gym?

Those are three of the five franchise opportunities that will be hawked during a "Franchise Road Show Tour" stopping in Dallas and Arlington next week.

The parent companies – Hollywood Tans, Wireless Zone and Contours Express, as well as Fantastic Sams Hair Salons and Salad Creations – plan to open at least 240 new stores in the Dallas area in the next five years.

The companies are pooling their resources – scouting real estate and buying advertising together – to keep the costs of generating business leads low. Each will work to match a potential franchisee with the right concept, "even if that means one brand suggesting one of the other four instead," said Greg Avdoian, a public relations company spokesman representing the companies.

All except for Fantastic Sams are largely new to the North Texas market. Wireless Zones, with stores now concentrated in New England, plans to use Dallas as a second headquarters and base for its Midwest expansion, said Sean Fitzgerald, the company's national vice president of franchise development.
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