Some interesting numbers coming out today on the scale of the franchising sector in South Africa and you can’t go anywhere without tripping over a franchise of some kind it would seem.

The MD of Franchize Directions, Bendeta Gordon, you have been doing some research into the whole of the franchise sector and what seems to be happening is enormous, enormous growth.
Yes, it is the sixth time we have done a census like the Standard Bank franchise sector and I am actually amazed at the growth in the last two years.

How much is that growth? I see 49 percent growth in operating franchise systems, but I don’t speak franchise, can you translate that into English.
Well, a franchise system would be a brand that then operates a number of franchise stores underneath it, for example, Nandos Chickenland would be one, and KFC would be one. So there are roughly 470 that we have identified.

So there has been a 49 percent growth in brand new franchise systems coming into the country then, or is this an extension of what existed already?
Except 2004, we reported that there were 381 systems, but between then and now, 65 of those systems are no longer franchising. So there are 154 new systems that have come into the market and that is the 49 percent increase, which is a big increase and it is just showing that more and more companies are using the franchise mechanism as a method of expansion.