Romanian franchise market amounts to 1.5 percent of 2015 GDP

The Romanian franchise market amounts to 1.5 percent of the country's 2015 gross domestic product, but half of franchises are illegal and generate distortions, Romanian Franchise Association (ARF) president Constantin Anton said.

2015-08-26 09:42:04

"We appreciate the Executive′s decision to recognize ARF as a public utility body, because it allows us to better fight the illegal franchises. When I say illegal, I mean they infringe the legislation in force, beginning with not having a trademark registered by the OSIM [State Office for Inventions and Trademarks] and a pilot unit operating for at least one year. The franchise market volume has halted at nearly 1pct of Romanian GDP, but turnover must be increased by playing lawfully. There are franchises of foreign companies that went bankrupt in their countries and came to Romania with a nice, good-looking presentation, and Romanians were always enthusiastic about buying a foreign brand; they distrusted Romanian brands," Anton asserted.

Most franchises in Romania are in the services, e-commerce and food. ARF already opened courses in its Academic Program to better know such businesses. Students can learn about the specific issues of budget, business plan and franchise management, of correct relations within the network, on dealing with new franchisees and with franchisee closures.

The ARF strategy aims at increasing the business value and educate the players in this industry; one of the most unpleasant problems is the ignorance of Romanian consultants for European funds about franchise.

"If a file is drawn up properly, Brussels takes into account franchise as a successful business, granting a score to its support. In Romania they do not. Thatis why we began, through programmes with ASE [Bucharest University of Economic Studies] students specializing in finances and banks, to connect them with the banks, allowing them creating franchise subsidising programmes for students. Our goal is bank officers understanding exactly what a franchise business means," the ARF head explained.