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Jason Smith, the sales manager for Master-Bilt Products in New Albany, Miss., was hoping to start the company exporting, but he never thought it would happen so fast. All it took was a call from a U.S. customer, and within days Mr. Smith's $100 million company was busy shipping old-fashioned novelty ice cream cabinets to Mexico and the Caribbean Islands.
Who's the customer? I Can't Believe It's Yogurt (ICBIY), a chain with a solid franchising base abroad and ambitions to expand.
These days Master-Bilt is only one of dozens of small and middle size manufacturers that have turned into exporters almost overnight. Thanks to the uniquely American business phenomenon called franchising, you can stop waiting to sell overseas and start moving into foreign markets without much of a game plan. Where frachisors go, you go too--with few risks. Given the recession and glut in the market at home, more franchisors are going abroad than at any other time in recent years. If you construct your deal carefully and don't become too dependent upon one franchisor, you can piggyback successfully on the expansion and cash in on the trend.
Not all franchise suppliers are manufacturers. "If it hadn't been for international franchises, I would have had a very slow '91," says John P. Hayes, president and founder of the Hayes Group, a consulting and marketing firm in Fort Washington, Pa., that caters to franchisors. Last year the Wharton School cited the Hayes Group as one of the fastest growing companies in the state. "Sometimes I sit back and say to myself, 'Wow, you're in a position you never dreamed you could be in four years ago,'" says Mr. Hayes.
KEEPING CONSISTENT
"A franchise that's going International creates unbelievable opportunities for its domestic suppliers," says Kenneth R. Franklin, president of Pittsburgh's Franchise Developments Inc., a consulting firm. For instance, the frozen yogurt chain is giving Master-Bilt easy entry into and great exposure in Mexico and the Caribbean, two markets that would normally have taken a lot longer to develop.
There's something in it for franchisors, too. The industry demands uniformity in everything from the products and services a franchise provides to the appearance of its stores, regardless of which corner of the world they're in. "Franchisors...