Franchise news

Expanding by slices
Il Treno has begun building a franchise chain. At present, they have almost a dozen units in the Budapest region. Il Treno Expressz is a segment of this chain, ooperating 40-50 square meter bars where pizza is sold by the slice. Franchise partners are being recruited for this operation. One alternative for franchisees is to operate a completely furnished bar, while the other is to buy the design and technology.

Moderate interest
The franchise conference held in Slovenia, in June ended with moderate success. Only there Hungarian chains appeared at the conference and the HoReCa sector was not represented. While the Macedonian and Czech franchise associations failed to attend, invited guests from India, Russia, Poland and Serbia were there. The total number of participants was under 40.

Focusing on the countryside
Testa Rossa is opening new units outside the Budapest region. They opened a café in Szolnok in July and plan to open another in Győr. At the moment, Testa Rossa is present in a Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Dubai and the US.

Café chains interested
New cafe chains are to enter Hungary. According to Világgazdaság, Costa Coffee owned by Whitbread Plc. , which has 600 units in the UK, the Middle East, Pakistan and India is showing serious interest in the Hungarian market. The Latvian chain Double Coffee has also indicated that it is interested in opening cafes in Hungary. This young chain has become one of the market leaders in the Baltic region in recent years. It is also one of the 500 most dynamically growing businesses in Europe.

Gloria Jeans Expanding
Gloria Jeans opened its third unit in Teréz körút, in July. The new café of the Australian chain has a floor area of 300 square meters. Gloria Jeans is present in 29 countries, with 800 units, where 40 million guests are served annually.

AmRest prepared
One of the largest expansion programs has recently been completed by American Restaurants (AmRest), by increasing the number of their Kentucky Fried Chicken units from 5 to 13 and modernising their design. AmRest is an enterprise registered in Poland, with franchise rights for brands like KFC, a Pizza Hut, a Burger King and Starbucks in eastern Europe and two brands of its own: Rodeo Drive and a Fresh Point. They will also open the first Starbucks Café in Budapest soon. AmRest has also acquired the right to operate 80-120 Applebee’s restaurants overseas. Applebee’s is the largest casual dining chain in the world with 1,900 units world-wide.