Report
These are the main conclussions, if you wish more detailed information about a particular industry, please, choose any of the sections available in the report.
(This information is updated as of September 2008)
- The first franchises appeared in Bulgaria in the 70s, but was in the mid-90s when the industry began to develop more strongly.
- Today, franchising is becoming the trend in some sectors, such as in the real estate agencies.
- In many sectors are already present major franchises (or chains that do not use franchise) international, which has not avoid the continued existence of some fairly strong local franchises.
- Despite the above, a large portion of the population is still unaware of this system, in part because of the limited information available.
- The franchising information is scarce and is highly fragmented. The data offered by the Bulgarian Association of Franchises (BULFA) are not very up-to-date and there is an Internet portal or a magazine specializing in the style of other countries that combine a reliable register of the master franchise available in the country.
- BULFA is undertaking initiatives in this direction, but there are still significant efforts to do, therefore, there is a market for niche publications, consulting firms and Internet portals interested in getting a development of the franchise save to a level closest to that of other European countries.
- A large part of the master franchise is in the hands of Greek companies.
- The attraction of Bulgaria has increased a lot with its entry into the European Union, which attracted more investment and franchising. In the next few years will continue installing important chains of the most renowned brands.
Note: The whole report is an extended (and translated by Daniel Nieto) version of “Franchises in Bulgaria”, by Iván Fanego and under the supervision of the Economic Office of the Embassy of Spain in Sofia. You can find the original version here.
