An industry group expects franchising revenues to rise 13 percent in 2023 to P30.5 billion from P27 billion in 2022, in anticipation of the contribution of local brands that expanded overseas.
Sherill Quintana, 2023 International Franchise Expo chairman, said more Philippine brands penetrated the global market in 2023.
“We are actually grooming 50 Philippine brands to go to 50 different locations abroad. These will add to the 20 brands that PFA has helped expand overseas,” Quintana said at a pre-event briefing for the upcoming 2023 International Franchise Expo to be held on Oct. 27 to 29, 2023 at SMX Convention Center-Manila.
Expo co-chair and Philippine Franchise Association director for advocacy Richard Sans said more than 1,000 local and foreign brands would converge during the three-day expo.
“There will be 350 companies, representing 1,000 brands making this the biggest franchise show in the country. With new players joining the market, about 39 percent are new and unique concepts such as breastfeeding centers, agriculture supplies, automated retail and convenience store concepts, kickboxing gyms, among others,” he said.
“The expo is a vehicle to promote the Philippines as an investment destination,” he said.
Sanz said the expo continued to draw crowd as 39 percent of exhibitors are new brands and 61 percent are repeat exhibitors.
The expo will coincide with the hosting of the World Franchising Conference (WFC) and the Asia-Pacific Franchising Conference (APFC).
Participating countries include Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the US.
PFA president Chris Lim cited data from the WFC country reports that the Philippines continued to lag behind its neighbors when it comes to overseas franchises.
“But we are undeterred with goal of binging 50 Philippine franchises to international markets. We just have to be constant with our aspirations and constant with how we do things,” he said.
Based on the report, Korea has the highest number of franchises in overseas markets with 472 brands, followed by Singapore with 200, Malaysia with 65, Japan with 59 and Taiwan with more than 20 brands.
The Philippines and Indonesia had 20 or fewer brands overseas, the report said.
