Thursday, November 26, 2009. Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi. Day 1 of Franchise India 2009 saw scores of enthusiastic entrepreneurs eagerly evaluating various franchise opportunities (300 brands) in India.

Billed as “Asia’s Biggest Franchise Show”, the event came alive in various sections – Brand License 2009, Entrepreneurship Summit ’09, Food & Beverage, Fashion franchising, Knowledge Series, Licensing and Retail.

What aroused our curiosity was the “Entrepreneurship Summit 2009” conference series. Some of the speakers at “Business Opportunities : Specialty Retail” session were:

• Aloke Banerjee, CEO, Rosebys
• Vivek Bali, Group President, Spice Hotspot
• S.Ravikant, COO, Titan Eyewear
• N.P. Singh, Director, Samsonite
• Rajiv Agarwal, The Mobile Store
• Naveen Rakhecha, CEO, Cartridge World

S. Ravikant, COO, Titan Eyewear  was representing Titan, India’s “Largest Specialty Retailer” with turnover of Rs. 3000 Crores. He talked about his franchise offer, “Multi-Brand” Eye+ Retail Stores, as “World Class Optical Stores”. What makes this an attractive opportunity is the fact that most consumers in this space are clueless about quality parameters, concerned about accuracy of lenses and confused about lack of transparency in pricing.

N.P. Singh, shared how Samsonite’s innovations (from 1910) have made it a global leader with 34% of global luggage market share. He presented his Rs. 25+ lakhs franchise opportunity (3 year payback) with a unique offering – “obsolescence replacement”.

A recurring theme was “World Class” – world class products, world class operations, world class systems, world class training, world class technology and so on.

Rajiv Agarwal showcased “The Mobile Store” as a world class shopping experience for the existing fragmented mobile market with a chaotic shopping experience.

Naveen Rakhecha, CEO, Cartridge World shared his gyan, “Look beyond traditional franchise opportunities (Education, F&B, etc). Go for distinguished offering. Unique ideas are likely to give better returns”.

NEXT BUSINESS CAPSULE: Opportunities in Food & Beverage segment.