SPOTLIGHTON:SCOTLAND T
here is far more to Scotland than Edinburgh and Glasgow, but it can sometimes be a hard sell to convince the franchise industry of it though…
Edinburgh, home of the world-renowned
International and Fringe Festivals, a castle with a quite remarkable view, and winner for the third year in a row of the title ‘Best City in the UK’ according to The Telegraph. More economically impressive though, it is the second largest financial centre in the UK, fourth in Europe, and home to nearly half a million people (8th largest population in the UK).
Glasgow, former industrial powerhouse
turned bustling city of culture, arts and business. It is the largest economy in Scotland and boasts the third highest GDP per capita in the UK (after London and, ahem, Edinburgh). It also has the 4th largest population in the UK at over 600,000. Inverness, the place everyone seems to know
is a three-hour drive north from Glasgow. According to research from RBS, it is also one of the fastest-growing economic areas in the UK. With the tourism, food and drink, energy and life sciences industries booming up there, and a £315million City Region Deal for Inverness and the Highlands announced in March of this year, it’s surprising that so many franchisors continue to see that three-hour drive to be an insurmountable barrier; especially since there’s also a bustling international airport. East to Aberdeen; the Granite City. With oil prices taking a battering, employment in Aberdeen is not what it (until very recently) once was. However, it’s hopefully not too opportunistic to conclude that an area with a great infrastructure, full of well-educated, highly qualified people, might prove worthy of investigation to the ambitious franchise development director? I won’t bore you will the business potential
across Perthshire, Dundee, Fife, Central Belt, Dumfries and Galloway, Clyde Valley, The Lothians, The Scottish Borders, suffice only to say, it is there in abundance.
Putting down the Lonely Planet Guide for a bit… on the back of the NatWest/bfa Franchise Survey this year, the Association offered the fairly eyebrow raising prediction that Scottish Franchising could be worth as much as £1billion to the Scottish economy by 2020. Last year (2015) franchising contributed £800million to the Scottish Economy, from 2,000 franchisee-owned businesses creating around 32,000 jobs. “Well that sounds great, but I’ll need brand new Scottish franchise agreements and all sorts of expensive legal extras,” I hear you cry. Well I’m not a lawyer, but I know a few. General advice is that in the majority of cases you do not need to have your franchise agreement expensively re-drafted. Rather, to borrow a delightful phrase you may have heard before, you should take your agreement to a Scottish qualified solicitor and ask them to ‘put a kilt on it’ for you. This essentially means preparing a short document called a Scottish Addendum which sets out any alterations required to ensure enforceability should it ever travel north of Carlisle or Berwick. Problem solved!
“OK, what’s the point in investing time and money in Scotland if you lot are inevitably taking your saltire and going home?” Well, I really don’t want to open that particular can of worms, but it’s an unavoidable talking point in an article such as this. Right now, the SNP’s official position appears to be one of keeping a
“Last year (2015)
franchising contributed £800million to the Scottish Economy, from 2,000 franchisee-owned businesses creating around 32,000 jobs”
lid on it until such times as they are guaranteed to win it… and they deem it to be in the best economic interests of Scotland. Let’s say at some point in the future, Scotland did decide to wave goodbye politically to the rest of the UK, but successfully remained a part of the single European market – would that really be a bad place to have established franchisees, or an experienced master? No answers on a post card please… I sat recently in a meeting where it was
remarked that the franchise community in England and Wales was deeply sceptical about the potential fall out from Brexit and weren’t sure if this was the right time to be expanding their networks. When asked if we were regularly encountering the same view point, the answer around the table was unanimous – “no, quite the opposite”. As a consultancy firm we can report that our clients (mostly based in England or internationally) are firing on all cylinders and going after growth full of optimism. Perhaps it’s time to find out what they think they know that you don’t? Scotland is very much open for business, and
there are plenty of knowledgeable franchise folk to show you around. Failte gu Alba – Welcome to Scotland! n
Andrew McCarroll Platinum Wave
andy@platinumwave.co.uk platinumwave.co.uk
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