Published Date: 27 May 2009
By Scott Reid, Deputy Business Editor
SCOTLAND's franchising sector remains in rude health, generating record turnover of £800 million last year, according to new research.
It marks a modest rise on 2007 and comes despite the contribution of franchising to the UK economy as a whole falling 8 per cent to £11.4 billion.
Although Scotland has few home-grown franchise businesses, the country is home to about 2,000 individual franchise units – including local operations for the likes of sandwich giant Subway and Domino's Pizza – employing some 26,000 people.
The British Franchise Association (BFA), which conducted the research along with NatWest, said franchising was proving resilient in the face of recession.
The survey, now in its 25th year, showed the number of UK franchises trading profitably was unchanged on 2007 at 90 per cent. At the height of the last recession, in 1990, only 70 per cent of franchises were in the black.