Those who follow Global Franchise’s social media handles will have noticed that we recently spent a few days at the FL Asia event at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre in Singapore.
While at this bustling show, which provided the perfect platform for Asian and foreign franchise-affiliated businesses to showcase their services, there was a multitude of trends and exciting opportunities that were prevalent. Here are some things what we noticed at the show:
1. The coffee industry is buzzing
If you were craving a caffeine kick when walking the aisles of FL Asia, you needn’t have looked far – the event was teeming with coffee-related businesses. From nitro coffee making machines created for foodservice operations to the likes of Kenny Rodgers Roasters, the coffee industry had a vast presence, and there was a palpable sense of intrigue and excitement surrounding every stand.
However, although incredibly popular, simply launching a coffee franchise in Pacific-Asia does come with issues, show attendees told us. For instance, the coffee cultures around Southeast Asia differ vastly, and plenty of consumers won’t be willing to fork out the equivalent of five dollars for a more premium cup of Joe. Experts we talked to at the show stressed how important it is for international brands to thoroughly research the typical demographic of the region they’re looking to set up shop in before launching.
2. Areas of interest: Singapore, Vietnam and Philippines
The IMF earlier this year earmarked Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam as booming economies of note which will collectively grow above five per cent in 2018 and 2019. There were plenty of brands representing these nations at the event – which underlined the flourishing business that’s emanating from these areas – as well as national pavilions from South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, too.
3. What next?
Those who visited FL Asia were lucky enough to pick up a hard copy of our inaugural Global Franchise issue, but if you are interested in keeping abreast of developments in the region and what franchises are faring well, we recommend you visit globalfranchise.com/asia to download our dedicated reports. In this series of Asia-specific franchising briefs we cover a whole host of subjects ranging from children’s education franchises to the latest F&B power brands.
