Because so many of us, and myself included, see franchises as fastfood, perhaps some restaurants as well, but there are just so many franchise opportunities in the market, although food is the biggest segment of it probably. There are other opportunities as well.
Absolutely. Look, fastfood and restaurants are still a very big player, but one cannot negate the contribution and the size of the other business categories and we are seeing it from automotive products and services, building office and home services right through to the telecommunications industry and the financial services sector.

And in fact, the mind boggles you and one has this preconceived idea, really that it is only the fastfood and some retail. But it stands a number of business categories and in fact, there are notable gaps, when we compare it to the industries and business categories in more developed countries.

How important is the franchise sector to the South African economy? More and more people seem to be getting involved, it is a growth area in terms of jobs as well. How important is it?
I think it is exceptionally important in terms of just the basic contributors to the economy in terms of employment, in terms of contribution to GDP and we are seeing sustainability of those individual franchises and still, it is bringing wealth creation right down to a base level.

An owner invests money, he employs people, he creates wealth and he can make a capital gain. One only has to look other small businesses in the economy and small businesses can give the economy great momentum and take advantage of this momentum as well, and that we are certainly seeing in South Africa.

Many people do think that franchising is a far easier way to make a living than either having a job or starting out you own business from scratch. But if you look at the statistics you mentioned a moment ago, success is not guaranteed in franchising.
Absolutely, you are 100 percent. I think people are quite naïve to think that it is. We always say that 60 percent of the success of a particular franchise operation is largely due to efforts of the franchisee and the balance the intellectual property and support of the franchisor.

But, I must say we have seen a very low failure rate of established franchisors in terms of store closing and less than one per franchise system. But one needs to look at that in context of where the economy has come from in the last two years.

So the economy has boded well for franchisees, but I am quite bullish that I think the growth is going to be sustainable and I think franchisee will even be able to bear the increase in interest rates. And we are going to continue to see consumer support in franchise out there.
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