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SPOTLIGHT ON RUSSIA Rising star


With a rapidly growing fast food and retail market, Russia is an increasingly attractive region for franchisors with expansion plans, writes Erlan Zhurabaev, editor in chief of BUYBRAND Inform


R


ussian franchising has come a long way in its development, and now has just as many chains and individual franchises as many European countries.


How it all began


Native businessman Vladimir Dovgan could be considered the pioneer of franchising in Russia. A well-known entrepreneur, innovator and business leader in his homeland, Dovgan’s name was a near-constant presence in the media


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during the early to mid ’90s. Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he launched two franchises: Doka-Khleb and Doka-Pizza. In 1992, Dovgan published the book ‘Franchising – the way to expand business’. The time for franchising in Russia had not yet arrived, as Russians were familiarizing themselves with the simplest forms of organizing a private business, and the most understandable was the cooperative model. Neither the knowledge nor the laws existed for franchising, and there were practically no franchisors. Dovgon’s


franchises, therefore, did not survive. A few years later, foreign franchises arrived,


with premium ice-cream brand Baskin Robbins being one of the first. Soon, Subway sandwich shops appeared. Both chains have achieved exceptional results in Russia. By 1995, the beginnings of major developments in franchising were starting to take place in the region. The company EMTG played a significant role, running the annual exhibition, BUYBRAND, since 2003. At the time, the idea that intangible assets and intellectual property could be


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