Despite only having seven stores in its native Australia, the popular café franchise The Chocolate Room has recently confirmed the ambitious plan to open upwards of 200 outlets in China, as well as a number of stores in Europe and the Middle East.
Founded by Jim Richardson, The Chocolate Room specialises in handmade chocolates, chocolate drinks and chocolate food lines. Having opened its first store in Geelong back in 2006, The Chocolate Room now operates out of seven stores Australia wide, with another three planned to open soon. In India it has more than 50 outlets.
According to Richardson the company plans to tap in to the lucrative Chinese market by opening up an average of 50 new stores per year in China over the next four years.
'We selected China and India as these two massive nations with an emerging middle class... especially in IT in India and manufacturing in China. The growth potential is fantastic' Richardson said.
As the majority of the population of China and India don't drink alcohol, Richardson believes that cafés are increasingly being seen as the 'cool place to hang out'.
As well as growing aggressively in China, The Chocolate Room has plans to open three stores in London, within a 12 month period of each other, as well as stores in Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Pakistan.
Article posted by Spencer Samaroo, Managing Director, Moo-Lolly-Bar. A true chocoholic, he also is chief editor of I Love USA Candy.
Source: Smart Company
1 comment:
Very good choice of location for The Chocolate Room. In pursuing franchising for your business you really have to look at a lot of factors and one factor that needs a lot of research is the location itself. Because location will tell if your franchise business will succeed or not.
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