Commerce
One of the sectors with the greatest potential in this type of franchise is in vogue. It can be seen as the big chains that had not been determined to operate in the country have decided to entry by the entry of this in the European Union (January 1, 2007). So many of the companies that will be pointed out have not yet opened its first store, but they plan to do in the short term. Finally, we also talk about other fashion chains that do not work through franchising, but we believe may be of interest, they are doing business in the same market niche and are important competitors.
The Spanish chain Mango (www.mango.es ) was a pioneer in the country, and now finds a total of three, two in Sofia (in a major shopping street of the city and another in a shopping center) and one in Varna. There don’t have plans for new openings in a short term.
Also Trucco (www.trucco.es ), a franchise chain of Spanish origin, has an establishment in downtown Sofia.
Greek Marinopoulos group in early 2008 signed an exclusive franchise agreement with Gap Inc. (www.gapinc.com ) to operate the Gap and Banana Republic brands in the markets of Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus and Croatia.
Apparel Group is franchised to distribute the brands of clothing Marc O’Polo (www.marc-o-polo.com ) brand of Swedish origin, and Esprit and open stores in Bulgaria in Burgas, Plovdiv and Ruse. Their intentions are to open outlets of Esprit in all major cities with sales area of 2,000 square meters.
The French franchise Naf Naf (www.nafnaf.com) has also declared its intention to enter the Bulgarian market with a store in Varna, and a subsequent expansion by the country with 4 more points of sale.
Outside the world of the franchise, future competition in this market will be the Dutch chain C & A (www.c-and-a.com ) property of Cofra Group (www.cofraholding.com), registered in Switzerland and also operates in the real estate sector, which will open its first store in 2009. At this time and are hiring and training staff. Their stores are usually located in downtown districts or malls.
Although Zara (http://www.zara.com/) is not operating under franchise, we must not forget to mention the chain of Spanish origin, which also opened a store in Sofia in a shopping center currently under construction. So far, Zara was operating with Zara Outlet. Other chains known as Deichman (www.deichmann.com), shoe chain of German origin, or H & M (www.hm.com ) plan to open outlets in Bulgaria in the near term. NewYork (www.newyorker.de), also from Germany, opened two stores in Varna (they use franchise system outside of Europe).
As representative of the Bulgarian chains, we have Veni Style (www.venistyle.com ), a chain of clothing for women using the franchise system. He opened his first store in 1990 in Plovdiv, where it is headquartered. Since then its growth has continued and at the end of 2007 they had 7 shops, 10 franchises and 170 employees.
In the area of cosmetics and beauty we can speak of Sephora, the chain (not franchise) in the case of Bulgaria is a member of Marinopoulos. Has yet to open any store in Bulgaria, but it is expected some time to undertake their activities.
Babor (www.babor-bulgaria.com ), known in the field teaches skin care and spa, has offices in Bulgaria since 2006.
Naturhouse (www.naturhouse.com ), the renowned Spanish teaches natural diet products and weight control, has sold its Master Franchise for Bulgaria, but has not opened any establishment.
Another area of interest is the mobile telephony. Currently, the penetration of these services is fairly high (77% on average in 2007, while Sofia is 88%), but to still have not reached the saturation point. Globul the country’s second mobile operator by market share plans to expand its sales network through franchising. For now, the franchise is almost a novelty in the sales networks of the three mobile operators (M-Tel, Globul and Vivatel). The exception was Jeff (www.jeff.bg ), a local chain of distribution of products for mobile terminals and currently has about 60 establishments across the country (24 in Sofia). It is now the exclusive distributor of Vivatel, ownership of the former state monopoly operator BTC. Some dealers telephony are Germans, or Internity Global Net Solution.
A franchise to excel in the field of office equipment is undoubtedly Office 1 (www.office1.bg ), founded by Mark Baccash in Madrid in 1989 under the name Carlin (www.carlin.es), which arrived the Bulgarian market in 1997. Currently operates in about 130 stores in 93 cities. The master franchise is owned by Panda Coop (www.panda.bg) as a curiosity, it is noted that “partner” of OpenBravo (www.openbravo.com), a management system ERP (enterprise resource planning, planning Enterprise Resource) in open source web platform of Spanish origin. More information:
http://www.openbravo.com/partners/find-partners-support/partner-detail.php?pid=179
The local supermarket chain Family, whose business concept would be between small convenience stores and supermarkets, made use of the franchise to continue its expansion and has signed a franchise contract with Ena Market in May 2007 to manage 17 of its 26 stores, with the intention of extending it to other stakeholders if the project worked. In October of that year the contract was canceled and signed another contract with Nova Family 2007. In late 2007, Maxima Bulgaria (www.maximabulgaria.bg, owner of the T-Market chain, bought the 8 largest Stores Family and Equest (www.equestinvestmentsbalkans.com ), investment fund owner of Family sold its 14 stores to Nova Family 2007.
Other local supermarket chains are Picadilly (www.piccadilly.bg ) established in Varna and 13 stores in the country), Fantastico (www.ff-bg.net , 32 stores, all in Sofia). Also present are some foreign chains like Metro, Billa and Carrefour shortly.
Chains DIY (Do It Yourself), have their representatives in Mr. Bricolage (France) and Praktiker (Germany).
Mr. Bricolage franchise (www.mr-bricolage.bg ) in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo is managed by Doverie Brico (www.doverie.bg ), a Bulgarian company opened the first store of Mr. Bricolage in 2000 and already operates 10 superstores in the country. Praktiker (www.praktiker.bg ) opened its first store in September 2004 and now has 9 centers in the country (2 of them in Sofia).
The entry of the largest and best known furniture company, Ikea (www.ikea.com ), is scheduled for 2010, helped by the Greek Fourlis (www.fourlis.gr ), holder of the franchise. Recently the company acquired a plot of 60,000 square meters worth some 12 million euros in Sofia (Vitosha region) where Ikea will be built. The cost of construction will reach 30 million euros.
Within IT sector, Computer 2000 highlights (www.computer2000.bg ), established in 1995 as part of Computer 2000 AG (Germany). In 2000 signed a new contract to be a Bulgarian-owned franchise. Also Computer Troubleshooters (www.comptroub.bg ) is a network of franchises born in 1997 that offers computer-makers, networks, etc. They do not sell computers, but their help in repairs, configurations, etc. New Horizons Computer Learning Centers (www.newhorizons.bg ) is another Bulgarian franchise that offers computer courses
In the pharmacies sector, we must note with particular interest the chain of franchises Ceiba (www.ceiba.bg ), which also provides vitamin medicines, personal hygiene products and cosmetics. In 2006, it operated 68 pharmacies throughout the country and some media claimed that it is controlled indirectly by Sopharma, the second largest pharmaceutical in the country.
Also there are other kinds of franchises in Bulgaria more specialized, such as Kaliman Caribbean (http://kalimancaribe.com ), which opened in June 2007 in Sofia (the first floor of the Radisson hotel) its second boutique luxury, part of the Spanish-Cuban franchise La Casa del Habano. The previous year had opened the first in the Mall of Sofia. Kaliman Caribbean is the exclusive distributor of Habanos in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania and also operates La Casa del Habano other chain stores (Premium Cigar and Tobacco) that sell their products. La Casa del Habano is a joint venture between the Cuban state company Cubatabaco and the Spanish company Altadis.
