Area Franchising: A Growth Strategy for
New & Growing Franchisors.

Blackstone Hathaway has been involved in area franchising since 1985, Marvin L. Storm, the founder, began as a franchisee of a packaging and shipping franchise initially opening up a single location and eventually operating seven locations. Subsequently, he acquired the area franchise rights for this franchise concept.

After developing an additional thirty franchise locations, Mr. Storm formed Blackstone Hathaway as an area franchising management company and acquired two additional area franchise development agreements for other franchise concepts.

In 2000, Mr. Storm acquired the franchisor of one of the franchise concepts in which he was an area franchisee. After successfully repositioning the company by launching additional franchise brands, Mr. Storm installed a management team to operate the company and returned to his roots in area franchising.

Blackstone Hathaway is a specialist in area franchising and is seeking to acquire area franchise rights as a master franchisee or area representative for emerging franchise companies seeking rapid expansion.

Why would a company choose area franchising vs. direct franchising?

Most emerging companies have limited financial resources and are relatively new to franchising.

"Area franchising is a distribution method franchise companies use to gain first mover advantage in the market place and to quickly establish their brand."

Although direct franchising using an in house franchise licensing team is preferred by many franchise companies, proper deployment can be expensive and it can be time consuming to recruit and adequately train and manage an in house franchise licensing department with qualified personnel.

Advertising to find qualified franchise candidates can be expensive and if there is not an adequate new franchisee advertising and marketing budget, unit growth can be slower than by using a properly structured area franchising strategy.

Area franchising offers significant benefits over in house management for new and growing franchisors; it can produce a substantially higher franchise unit growth rate, at a lower cost over a traditional in house direct sales model, and it provides the benefit of higher level experience and success.

Where do you find a qualified area franchising specialist?

Blackstone Hathaway is one of the pioneers in area franchising. The principals of Blackstone Hathaway have been involved in franchising for nearly three decades. This longtime experience includes successfully operating franchises in five different concepts, managing four different area franchise territories with nearly 100 franchisees and operating a franchise company as the franchisor. Our area franchising experience has led to negotiating and structuring franchising agreements for other companies and focusing Blackstone Hathaway on seeking out new franchise concepts that lend themselves to the area franchising development program.

There is very little that Blackstone Hathaway has not done in franchising.

When is area franchising right for your company?

If you are in a market segment that is not currently highly competitive (but you know it will be) or in a market segment that is growing more competitive with each passing month, area franchising might be a better expansion strategy than you currently have. If you have a limited new franchisee advertising and marketing budget, area franchising will help solve this problem without a significant investment on your part.

Finally, if you need specific expertise in area franchising to tweak an existing area franchising program or design and/or launch a new area franchising program, Blackstone Hathaway is a good resource to discuss whether area franchising is right for you or not.

The first step is for you to fill out the appointment scheduler and suggest a convenient time for an approximately one hour initial conversation. Please attach any files that you think will be helpful in letting us better understand your concept and present development efforts.

We look forward to talking to you!!