US franchisor excited by NZ prospects

Simon Lord

US franchisor Dan Benton of NexCen was in New Zealand recently. We caught up with him in Christchurch where he was about to start a series of meetings with people and companies interested in master licence opportunities with his company

What is NexCen? NexCen was created in 2005 to look for successful US brands and take them international. We acquired The Athlete's Foot, which already operated in 40 countries, to give us the necessary local experience and infrastructure around the world and have since developed several other brands internationally.

What are the brands? We have four food brands: Great American Cookies, Marble Slab Creamery, Pretzelmaker and Maggie Moos Ice Cream. In addition to The Athlete's Foot, which is already well-known here in New Zealand, we also have a high fashion shoe and accessory franchise called Shoebox.

What are you looking for in New Zealand? We're meeting pre-qualified people who are interested in one or more of our brands at master franchise level. Generally they have corporate experience and capabilities and some sort of infrastructure already in place but are looking to expand and diversify. This is the very early stages - nobody comes to these meetings with an open chequebook. We're here to find out more about each other and start the dance.

What's attracting the most interest? Our ice cream brands, Marble Slab and Maggie Moos. They're both premium products made in store.

How big a market do you foresee in New Zealand? In our assessment, the market might be ten stores although it could be more. We'd base any master licence fee on a minimum number but wouldn't be unreasonable. We'd expect a master to open a company store first and then they could either open more outlets of their own or sub-franchise.

How have you found New Zealand so far? Delightful in every respect - everyone is so friendly. I've only seen Christchurch at the moment but my wife and her sisters have taken off for Queenstown and they're sending me these amazing pictures - there's so much to do and they've been hiking too. My wife says we're coming back for a holiday next time. From a business point of view, there are a lot of unfamiliar brands - I've seen a lot of stores that look like franchises but I can't tell which are and which aren't yet. There's certainly a lot of available retail space around and it looks like a lot of opportunities for franchisees. I'm looking forward to visiting Auckland next.

So any impressions of the franchise scene so far? I'm learning all the time. I've seen a couple of issues of Franchise New Zealand magazine and I have to say it's really one of the most informative magazines for potential franchisees I've ever seen - very good in every respect.