The first Milano take-away café wasopened on Thong Nhat Street in Go Vap district of Ho Chi Minh City inSeptember 2011. After two years, the number of cafés bearing Milanobrand nationwide has reached 200.
A new Shi-fu Dimsum house’sshop was inaugurated on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street in Ho Chi Minh Cityin early November. The eighth Tokyo Deli, serving Japanese dishes, hasbeen opened in Ho Chi Minh City, several years after the first shop ofthe chain was opened in 2007.
Cong Vang JSC has been very wellknown in Vietnam as the owner of 8 chains (40 restaurants). It startedup with only five restaurants in 2008 and has been making strongdevelopment since then. Especially, in 2008-2012, the company obtainedthe steady annual growth rate of 21 percent.
A lot of other bigchains have been well known to Vietnamese, including Trung Nguyencoffee, Thuan Kieu rice, Gao and Con Ga Trong restaurant chains.
Accordingto Dr. Nguyen Cong Ai, Deputy General Director of KPMG Ltd, it is nowthe right time for investors to open restaurant chains. In the economicrecession, retail premises are getting cheaper, which makes it easier tofind reasonable premises to run business.
“We now giveconsultancy to some clients in their plans to expand their businesschains,” he said. “The most important thing is that the restaurants mustsatisfy the consumers’ taste, especially the taste of the youngcustomers.”
Ho Thi Kim Thoa, Deputy Minister of Industry andTrade, said franchising is a progressive business model which has beendeveloping for the last tens of years in many countries in the world. InVietnam, it has become popular over the last 5-6 years.
For thefood business sector, it is a smart business model as the increase inthe number of shops is the best advertisement method. It is moreprofitable to run a food chain with many restaurants than running arestaurant, because the chain’s owner can save costs when negotiatingabout material supplies.
Le Minh Cuong, Director of Le PhanCoffee Company Ltd, the owner of Milano chain, said at first Cuong didnot intend to develop a chain of cafes under the mode of franchising.
Cuongonly began applying the mode with the 11th shop. The franchisees haveto pay 55 million VND for shop setting up and 10 million VND in deposit,while they receive 100 percent of coffee from Cuong.
He notedthat the strong development could be a double edge knife to any chains.If the new shop performs well, this would be good for the whole chain.But if a one shop “has problems,” this would spoil the brand.
Whilea lot of chains have succeeded, many others have to leave the market.Gloria Jeans Coffee is a typical example of the failure of the businesschains in Vietnam. Almost the shops of the chain have been shut down.-VNA