[Resolved]  Baskin Robbins — Review on Baskin Robbins franchise

The business format is not that a happier one. Though the brand claims 'we make people happy'. Isnt it better to keep your family happy and then get to the people. Many have lost money and time and few have succeeded. Especially if it is a mall the success rate seems to be high. The stand alone parlors are not doing great, technically one will have to undergo losses for 5-6 months (winters & rains) and you will have to cover them up in the summers, but the net take home for an year is minuscule, over a period of time one will loose interest with the small returns it fetches and thinking of exit. Sometimes it is not even possible to accommodate the interest for the capital invested. If at all one desires to exit from the business, what hits most is the depreciation and the value erosion from the sale proceeds. There is no MG amount provided by the company, therefore one has to keep adding funds to the system in those difficult months to sustain, year on year. But nothing much has been done to grow the sales or taking care of the existing stores, would it happen the same way if all the stores are owned by the brand. It is just that if some one would want to exit, there would be another gullible to replace. As long as this cycle continues, there would be no serious thoughts given to the issues faced by the existing franchisees. It is very easy to get attracted to the amazing quality of the product... Absolute negligence towards same store business growth or to identify and addressing the growth issues. Just keep adding the number of stores and the brand is least bothered about the existing stores whether they are making profits or losses. The store density is increasing year on year like the expenses, but least thought given to the sales. Few little promos were implemented, the product cost had to be borne by the franchisees, if at all the brand is bearing the costs, It is like fill it forget it, may be it takes half an year to see the reimbursements. An another interesting fact here, if an existing store owner wants to shut shop, he would incur a loss, so what he would do is to sell/transfer the store to some one at much lesser price than he would have invested (depreciation=value erosion). It is bit easier to run the store at depreciated value, the capital would be lesser than a new store. Net net there will be no store closed but just the hands keep changing, people would think the stores were never closed and they are doing good and new investors would'nt have an iota of doubt on the business model. At the end of the day what a franchisee has is a 'good feeling that he owns a BR store' And if one's objective is not to make money and loosing money is OK, or to a maximum of making between 10 & and 30 grand (depends on the density of stores around your new store) in a month (average of 12 months). Then you go ahead and plunge in. But If you are borrowing funds and planning to sustain with the store's revenue, I guess you have to seriously do the math and build accountability (maybe in writing) by the team before getting in. Time has come in India for a need to have a system to address these issues...best way to is to get inputs from the existing store owners in other vicinities...good luck!!!