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Greater attendance expected at annual franchise show

Taiwan Association of Chain and Franchise Promotion director William Wang, center, poses at a Taipei press conference yesterday to promote the Taipei International Chain and Franchise Exhibition. The trade show opens on Friday at the Taipei World Trade Center. PHOTO: YANG YA-MIN, TAIPEI TIMES

The annual Taipei International Chain and Franchise Exhibition may see 130,000 visitors this weekend, up from last year's 120,000, as more people grow interested in starting up their own businesses, an organizer said yesterday.

"Seventy percent of our poll respondents said they were ready to start up their businesses this year," Beryl Lee (李培芬), secretary-general of the Taiwan Association of Chain and Franchise Promotion, told a press briefing.

According to Lee, some 4,500 new start-up franchise stores, out of a total of 75,000 stores, were founded last year, which is expected to grow to 5,000 this year.

The four-day exhibition will be kickstarted in Taipei's World Trade Center starting on Friday to showcase 500 booths by 160 firms, which represent a total of 200 franchised brands.

Well-known Chinese franchises will also take part in the exhibition, which would help reinforce the exchanges between Taiwanese and Chinese franchise brands, the show organizer said.

A Chinese group with nearly 100 businesspeople who are interested in making deals with local franchises was also invited.

"Given the fast-growing franchise service industry in China, many China-based Taiwanese manufacturers are interested in tapping into the service sector, while some of them have begun talks about cooperating with Taiwanese chain stores to set up shops," association chairman William Wang (王國安) said yesterday.

The cooperation between the China-based manufacturing sector and Taiwan-oriented franchise industries will be inevitable as the industry is likely to generate more profit than manufacturing in the future, Wang said.

"There are a lot of business opportunities in the Chinese franchise market, as only 10 percent of the nation's 2,000 franchise brands have extended their investments to China," Wang said.
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