Franchise industry aims for 15% growth in 2023

The Philippines’ franchising industry is expected to grow its revenues by at least 15 percent in 2023, creating around 2 million new jobs as the local sector worth hundreds of billions of pesos is seen to thrive this year.

Philippine Franchise association (PFA) chair emeritus Sammie Lim said this during a press conference at Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila in Pasig City on Wednesday, citing at least three drivers for this growth track, one of which is inflation.

“I personally believe it’s going to be higher. Number one, with inflation coming up, you factor that in,” Lim said, noting the effect of the rising inflation on business revenues.

“Number two, we are seeing right now 50 percent of the new franchise source—well, 48 percent to be more exact—coming from outside Metro Manila,” he added, explaining the further spreading of franchising activities outside the country’s main urban metropolis.

The PFA official also said that the local industry is planning to expand further overseas, aiming to grow the number of Philippine brands that have foreign presence by more than twofold.

“We have now about 20 brands internationally. We’d like to be able to sell 30 more brands to fulfill our vision of having 50 Philippine brands all over the world,” said Lim.

The PFA official said further that most owners of franchise brands want to expand to the United States or Canada, but noted that he thinks the more suitable locations to expand are in countries within the Asian region.

“I think the easier place to go to is Asean and our neighboring countries,” Lim said.

“In Asia, except for Japan and Korea, I think the Filipino brands are the most acceptable,” he said, noting that the language barrier in these countries is a major consideration expanding there.

Meanwhile, PFA chair Sherill Quintana mentioned at least two franchise subsectors which they anticipate will drive the growth this year.

“The food sector has always been nailing it. But we want to help out also, especially the retail sector,” she said, citing the high growth potential of this franchise segment.