Boutique stationery and gift retailer kikki.K will franchise up to 10 of its Australian stores as it gears up to expand into the Asian market.
The company has opened 82 stores in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, and is now looking to sell 10 existing Australian stores as franchises. The stores are located in Belconnen, Kotara, Macarthur, Geelong, Brighton, Bowral, Erina Fair, Tuggerah, Glenelg and Sydney (David Jones).
Founded in 2001 by Kristina Karlsson and Paul Lacy, kikki.K has built a reputation with its Swedish-designed stationery and gifts.
Lacy told business newsletter SmartupStart that the 10 stores were chosen primarily because of their location away from each other.
"One of the other reasons is they have a strong local community following, which gives an individual businessperson an opportunity to get in and build strong, rich, local relationships," he said.
Lacy said a new franchisee would be looking at an investment of between $150,000 and $600,000. But unlike other franchise systems, their stores already exist.
"That person is going into a store that's already operating and has been operating for quite some time successfully. There are no store bump-in and no lease negotiations," he said.
There are currently three Kikki.K stores in Singapore, but that number could grow.
According to Lacy, franchising the stores will provide the company with additional capital to support the funding of further international expansion throughout Asia and beyond.
"We may or may not take the franchising model into other countries," he said.
