Why Are There No European Franchises?

[Zanza]

I remember reading an article somewhere (Economist or so?) that franchising is just not as widespread in Europe as it is in America. I can't think of many international franchise models in Europe. Some in fashion like Benetton, Zara, Esprit. Obi, which is kind of a Home Depot and operates throughout Europe. I know quite a few franchises that operate only in Germany, e.g. small fastfood chains, travel agents, opticians, etc.

Are car dealerships franchises?

[PRC]

The selling point of a franchise is that you go into an establishment and receive the exact same product regardless of the location.  A Big Mac is a Big Mac is a Big Mac and a Grande Americano is a Grande Americano is a Grande Americano.

North America likes that safety net of knowing what they are going to get when they buy.  Europe is more comfortable going for food, ordering off a menu, and possibly having an unknown crap meal that they didn't originally bargain for.

[Siege]

Euro sucks.

[Martinus]

The selling point of a franchise is that you go into an establishment and receive the exact same product regardless of the location.  A Big Mac is a Big Mac is a Big Mac and a Grande Americano is a Grande Americano is a Grande Americano.

North America likes that safety net of knowing what they are going to get when they buy.  Europe is more comfortable going for food, ordering off a menu, and possibly having an unknown crap meal that they didn't originally bargain for.

Yeah, pretty much.

Where Americans see consistency and safety, Euros see the lack of creativity and boredom.

I mean, even McDonald's in Europe is not exactly the same in each country - in fact, there are wild differences, not just in the menu, but also in stuff like composition of Coca Cola, apparently, because it is all purchased locally, from local bottlers.

[Zanza]

I don't know about other countries, but Marty's claim that franchise companies are generally not successful in Europe is not true for Germany. McDonald's is very successful here, Burger King is doing okay, Subway is booming, Starbucks didn't do so well because they had a bad strategy: not operating on a franchise model, but rather having few company-owned shops. There are lots of smaller regional food chains though: Kochlöffel, Ditsch, Kamps etc.

[Razgovory]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi

But apparently not a franchise thing.

We have one in my town.  And Yi claims to be from the midwest.   Also IKEA.

[Brezel]

Well, the European common market is relatively young compared to the American one. American companies have had better possibilities to expand and accumulate wealth inside national borders before going overseas. I'm just guessing here.

[garbon]

Yeah, pretty much.

Where Americans see consistency and safety, Euros see the lack of creativity and boredom.

I mean, even McDonald's in Europe is not exactly the same in each country - in fact, there are wild differences, not just in the menu, but also in stuff like composition of Coca Cola, apparently, because it is all purchased locally, from local bottlers.

Do you ever get tired making up crap? Or is this another one of your lovely affectations?

[Zanza]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,566619,00.html

McDonald's has higher revenue in Europe than in the USA.

[Alatriste]

It's more complex than that. Actually the question should be: Why all big franchises are American? It's not only Europe; there are no big Japanese, Chinese or Indian franchises either and they don't need to go international to become one of the biggest. a Chinese or Indian franchise operating exclusively in their home turf could get big indeed...

Now, there are relatively big European franchises, like IKEA (yes, IKEA uses franchising), Benetton or Zara... but oddly enough, not in the same areas than American ones.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/topglobal/index.html

This list (the first I found, perhaps there are much better ones) lists amongst the biggest Subway, MacDonalds and Pizza Hut, but also Liberty Tax Service, Ace Hardware and UPS, for example.

[Syt]

Do you ever get tired making up crap? Or is this another one of your lovely affectations?

He's right about the local produce, though. McD's in Germany and Austria at least pride themselves in advertising good "German"/"Austrian" beef/taters/milk/cheese etc.

[Alatriste]

I don't know about other countries, but Marty's claim that franchise companies are generally not successful in Europe is not true for Germany. McDonald's is very successful here, Burger King is doing okay, Subway is booming, Starbucks didn't do so well because they had a bad strategy: not operating on a franchise model, but rather having few company-owned shops. There are lots of smaller regional food chains though: Kochlöffel, Ditsch, Kamps etc.

National differences seem very big... in Spain MacDonalds and Burger King are doing much better than KFC, Subway is completely unknown (I just didn't know they existed until I read this thread), Starbucks are appearing everywhere...

[PRC]

Do you ever get tired making up crap? Or is this another one of your lovely affectations?

It's true to a certain degree... McDonalds in Greece offers "Mojo" fries, thick cut fries as opposed to shoestring ones which are offered everywhere else... and McDonalds in Holland serve Pizza (in 1998 anyways), which you can occasionally find here in NA as discussed in a recent thread.  Also you can buy beer in Euro Ratland which you can't over here. 

[garbon]

He's right about the local produce, though. McD's in Germany and Austria at least pride themselves in advertising good "German"/"Austrian" beef/taters/milk/cheese etc.

Well it would be weird for McDonald's here to position itself on having good American food...

Anyway, I really objected to his generalizations about places that he will probably never visit and clearly knows little about.

Maybe there is something about being gay/"bisexual" as between him and Carrot we seem to have a couple of know-it-alls. I wonder what I pretend to know about.

[Alatriste]

Do you ever get tired making up crap? Or is this another one of your lovely affectations?

It's true to a certain degree... McDonalds in Greece offers "Mojo" fries, thick cut fries as opposed to shoestring ones which are offered everywhere else... and McDonalds in Holland serve Pizza (in 1998 anyways), which you can occasionally find here in NA as discussed in a recent thread.  Also you can buy beer in Euro Ratland which you can't over here.

Yeah, Burger King and McDonalds offer beer in Spain (and a friend of mine that worked for MacDonalds Spain told me they had to fight a long, hard battle to convince US top brass before they were allowed to), and salads and gazpacho too...