Pizza Fusion expands internationally

International Expansion news:

Samir Group, a Saudi Arabian company, will be exhibiting at next month's Franchising Middle East (FME) exhibition in a bid to take the Pizza Fusion brand across the Middle East, according to AMEinfo.com.

"Food and beverage franchise outlets are opening in an abundance across the Middle East, with new to market concepts offering increasingly diverse dining options. This year's FME exhibition will welcome a number of dining brands and we are delighted that Pizza Fusion will be trying the show for the first time. Healthy eating options are proving to be very successful in the Middle East market and we look forward to hearing of the first Pizza Fusion outlet opening in the region soon," said Abdul Rahman Falaknaz, Chairman of International Expo-Consults (IEC), the organiser of FME.

FME is the largest international franchise exhibition in the Middle East and is supported by the IFA (International Franchise Association). The exhibition facilitates direct communication between entrepreneurs and potential franchise buyers from the region and beyond.

International expansion of retail brands, at least as we know them, has its limitations

International expansion does not always involve exporting your retail brand. A recent article in StarTribune gives some good examples. According to this article, Richfield-based Best Buy last week did a major about-face, closing nine of its nameplate stores in China and another one in Turkey, which it entered just two years ago.

Best Buy, which said its international retreat would cost up to $245 million, is just the most recent example of a U.S. retailer finding that stores don't export so well. Wal-Mart had four failed attempts in Asia and Germany from 1995 until 2006. Several years ago U.S. clothiers sampled the European market and failed because, by tradition and sometimes law, there was little or no Sunday shopping. Home Depot has been closing stores in China.

But in some sectors, acceptance of U.S.-branded products can be wholehearted. KFC is a huge success in Asia. So is McDonald's. 

Best Buy's branded stores in China were similar to its U.S. stores, where products made by different manufacturers sit side by side by category. Computers in one section, printers in another, for example. But in China, shoppers are used to smaller stores crammed with technology products that are bunched together by manufacturers and sold by clerks licensed to that manufacturer. Thus there is less comparison shopping. There is also an active black market that undercuts what retailers can charge. Chinese consumers also value price over quality.

Although it closed its branded stores, Best Buy will concentrate on the Chinese marketplace with Five Star, a Chinese chain in which it acquired a controlling interest in 2006. At the time there were 136 Five Star stores, and Best Buy has added some the past five years, bringing the total to 159. Now it wants to accelerate that by adding 40 to 50 outlets in the next two years. Best Buy says its purchase of Five Star has been a success. Year-over-year sales for the chain were up nearly 30 percent with "significantly" improved operating margins.

International expansion, therefore, involves looking at all alternatives and often requires new strategies. 

Slowing global expansion for mobile in Middle East

International expansion slowing for Middle Eastern mobile operators according to PRTM study. 

Middle Eastern mobile operators remain committed to international expansion but face some challenges due to slowing growth and intensifying competition, according to a study.
Five Middle Eastern companies - Orascom/WIND, Zain, STC, Qatar Telecom and Etisalat - have entered the global stage, but last year the global expansion began to slow, said PRTM in its latest report.
“The past several years have witnessed a tremendous rise in demand for mobile services in emerging markets. A number of entrepreneurial operators capitalised on that opportunity, and they quickly became global leaders. They have the opportunity to play at the top table, but slowing growth and intensifying competition will pose daunting challenges,” said Anil Khurana, lead director of PRTM’s Middle East Region and co-author of the report.
According to the PRTM’s study, “The Future of Telecommunications: New Strategies for a New World,” customers will gravitate towards service providers with the best in-market broadband networks, due to an increasingly data-centric world - leading network operators to revisit their models of the past five years, where every spare dollar went overseas.
Operators will likely leverage merger and acquisition and capital spending to improve competitive positions in their countries/regions rather than investing in global empire building, the report said.
It said the developing world will be the stage for intensifying competition, further price wars, lower average amount of revenue per users and continued rapid growth in operational costs. Subscriber numbers will continue to grow, but revenues will rise more slowly and profitability and cash-flows may flatten or decline.
“Until recently, companies like Telenor, Orascom, Zain and STC were investing for their own international footprint. Going forward, they will likely sell off small peripheral operations in weak positions, focus on building in-market depth or ally with larger groups,” Khurana said.

How to succeed with international expansion online

International expansion of affordable eye glasses

 

Roy Hessel, CEO, EyeBuyDirect.com, Bethesda, Md.

Our company’s mission is to make affordable eyeglasses available to people everywhere in the world. 

In the end, our international expansion was a huge success.

Our eyeglasses are sold online, across the world. We focused first on the U.S. market because it was the easiest place to get a foothold. We expanded into the European market primarily because of the region’s widespread use of credit cards. 

The first step to dealing with this was simple enough: We translated our website. 

Our customer service inquiries in Spanish, Italian, German, and other languages went through the roof but we didn’t have the staff to handle these multi-lingual service requests.

Dual strategy for expansion in new markets

For starters, we hired new employees once it was clear we had a certain level of demand in that language. We would assess the amount of emails we got in French, for example, and hire a representative when we had surpassed a certain number. We have a location outside of Paris that services all of Western Europe; this location also makes it easy to hire representatives in the area who speak multiple languages.

We also used new language hires as a resource for expanding into new markets. For instance, we didn’t have a lot of Japanese inquiries, but I saw Japan as a market with a lot of opportunity. So we hired a customer service representative from Japan because we knew that she would be an invaluable in-house resource. Employees native to a country can easily do research on determining the right price points for products and look at what the competition is doing. This employee helped us break into the Japanese market.

Keeping our international staff happy

Our customer service staff at locations in San Francisco, Manchester, England, Paris, and Shanghai do activities together, off-campus activities like sports.  Relationships have developed among our 200 employees and turnover is low because we believe people have a place to be themselves. And if they’re learning from their colleagues, and enjoying spending time with them, they are more likely to be patient with customers on the phone.

– As told to Caitlin Elsaesser

Japanese gaming firm focus on international expansion

Whether you are interested in international expansion or just gaming, you may want to note this story from GamesOnDeck:

Japanese mobile social network operator and game developer DeNA announced a rebranding for its popular MobageTown service to just “Mobage”, and unveiled a new logo with English text. 

...The change signals DeNA’s expanding international focus... it’s launching a global Mobage platform for Android devices in the coming months, and has manufacturer bundling deals with major firms like Samsung.

Expanding its international userbase is key, as DeNA generates much of its revenues from virtual goods sales in Mobage games. ...

Recruiter attributes success to international expansion strategy

Recruiter benefits from international expansion

According to Recruiter, global expansion is behind rising profits at NES, according to the technical recruiter’s group chief executive Neil Tregarthen. The group, which has opened overseas trading offices in Brazil, Equatorial Guinea, Saudi Arabia and Brisbane during the year, reports that operations outside of the UK now make up 78% of group profits and 59% of group revenues.

International expansion of stock exchanges and their technology

Stock exchanges engage in international expansion

According to Financial Times, Korea Exchange, Asia’s third-largest bourse, is aggressively expanding abroad, exporting its trading platforms and information technology systems to emerging markets, in an attempt to boost its global profile and diversify its revenue sources.

The exchange has made overseas expansion a top priority for this year as it aims to join the top five ranks by 2020. KRX is already a highly liquid bourse with a well-developed trading system and has one of the world’s most actively traded derivatives market.

KRX aims to expand into 30 countries, mostly emerging markets in southeast and central Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. It helped Laos and Cambodia set up stock exchanges and would co-manage them while it won orders to modernise Uzbekistan's bourse and to install the monitoring system for the Philippine stock exchange.

The article goes on to explain that other exchanges are engaging in similar internationalization activities, to wit:

• The proposed merger between Australia’s stock exchange with Singapore Exchange.
• Deutsche Börse's advanced talks with NYSE Euronext.
• London Stock Exchange's agreed all-share merger with TMX Group, operator of Canada’s largest stock exchange.

Wal-Mart's international expansion to blame

Wal-Mart's international expansion could be its downfall

We just picked up, from Business Insider, that JP Morgan has downgraded Wal-Mart. 

The article says, in part: 

"Though it is currently the top grocery store chain in the country, Wal-Mart's days of being retail  champ may be numbered. The stock is down close to 2% after JPMorgan downgraded it from neutral to overweight and said it didn't expect any major stock boosts to come soon. Analyst Charles Grom said he sees no signs of anything in the future that would push the stock out of its current trading range of $45-$60. It has been in this range for the last 10 years...International expansion has also reduced its free cash flow."

Indian airlines expand internationally

International expansion by Indian airlines

On Feb 15, India's Daily News & Analysis reported that Jet Airways, India’s largest private airline, is looking to expand its network in several European cities besides also launching a non-stop service to New York. Jet wants to join Alitalia’s network. At present, however, Italy does not allow any Indian airline to enter into code share with an Italian airline for domestic routes within Italy. At present, it uses Brussels as a hub and as a gateway to Europe and North America.The airline’s Indian competitors such as Kingfisher and IndiGo are also gearing up to expand their overseas destinations.

International expansion for lemon and avocado

International expansion for US avocado and lemon grower

According to Ventura County Star, the Santa Paula-based Limoneira Co. is focused on global expansion after becoming a publicly traded company in May.Limoneira, now listed on the NASDAQ, sells lemons, avocados, oranges and some specialty crops to retailers, wholesalers and the food service industry. It's a leading national agribusiness, the largest grower of avocados in the United States and one of the largest lemon growers.

It plans to grow from 2 million to 10 million cartons of lemons a year over 10 years. The U.S. lemon market is a $500 million a year opportunity, but globally it's a $2 billion opportunity. There is opportunity for expansion in the avocado market, too.

As part of a commitment to global expansion, Limoneira has invested heavily in high production standards, food safety and full traceability. 

The company's other assets include residential and commercial real estate and excess solar energy.

French optics company expands internationally

International expansion by French optics company

A recent article in Electro-Optics reported that Imagine Optic, a manufacturer of high-performance Shack-Hartmann wavefront metrology and adaptive optics solutions, has opened new offices in the heart of the Pythagore optics-photonics cluster in Shanghai China. The new offices, which also play host to other leading high-technology companies, were opened at the end of November 2010 in Yangpu District, in close proximity to 12 of China’s leading universities. In December 2009 the Orsay, France-based company opened two US subsidiaries (Imagine Optic, Inc and Axiom Optics), which have recently reported that combined orders from their first year of operation totaled over $800k. 

International expansion deals under new scrutiny in China

International Expansion learned today (from The Wall Street Journal) that China has enacted new rules for evaluating, on national security grounds, foreign firms intending to merge with or acquire Chinese entities. Under the rules, China's National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce, the two ministries that already review mergers under the antitrust rules, will lead the new national-security-review committee.The committee will review mergers and acquisitions targeting key companies in the defense, agriculture, energy, resources, infrastructure, transportation and equipment-manufacturing and technology industries, the statement said. It will apply a broad definition of national security, assessing the impact of deals on economic stability, social order and China's ability to research and develop key technologies for national defense, according to the rules.  

Continued international expansion for Confluence

Confluence continues international expansion

A leader in investment management data automation, Confluence, according toTECHburgher, is pursuing strategic partnerships and opportunities for continued global expansion, while elevating awareness of the company’s vision and the need to radically reinvent the way asset managers meet the challenges of increased investor transparency, more exacting regulatory standards, and intensified global competition.

New Zealand firm seeks capital for international expansion

International expansion is most likely the next step for Carbonscape, as it may not be able to attract New Zealand investors. 

Having proved its microwave method of producing charcoal is feasible, Carbonscape’s now looking for the right investors to globally expand, according to sticknz.

As a start-up New Zealand business, whether those next investors are NZ-based is both problematic and indicative of the growth and expansion challenges faced by many of our entrepreneurs. Doubly so in Carbonscape’s case, as the technology’s very new.

The challenge is to attract strategic investors who can pony up with the $2-$10 million to give a push to its microwave technique which can convert essentially any organic waste such as sawdust, into valuable products.

This includes activated carbon (AC) form of charcoal, a product for which demand is growing at a compound basis at 5% a year. AC’s large surface area gives it a wide range of uses in many industries, and it is also an extremely stable absorber of carbon dioxide, which in turn can be sequestered/buried and take the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere.

By tweaking the microwave heating parameters, valuable gases and oils can also be recovered from the feedstock, instead of, as in other charcoal-production processes, being part of the burning process itself.
It is what can be considered an “enabling technology.”

“Our global expansion speed will be a function of our access to capital,” says Carbonscape co-founder, Nick Gerritsen. Having proved the work, and establishing datasets around the AC, gas and oil production, “we’ve had a lot of interest from around the world,” he says.

Personal relationships are important in international expansion

International Expansion, in the following, offers an extract from Angela Haines's post

British Airways Gives Entrepreneurs A Ticket To Global Expansion

The premise is that personal meetings still have a place, despite a trend towards electronic commerce and meetings. 

Here's, in part, what she reported:

Last week in New York, during an all day program that included networking events and panels on various aspects of doing business abroad, three finalists among 250 competed for the chance to win 10 round-trip tickets on British Airways. The next day all 250 entrepreneurs boarded a British Air jumbo jet for a stopover gathering in London for more meetings and networking before flying to their various selected destinations to drum up international business. 

Proof that these face to face meetings work comes from last year's British Airways winner, Judi Henderson-Townsend, CEO of Mannequin Madness, an Oakland-based company that recycles, sells, rents, and repairs mannequins for use in the retail industry, trade shows and the arts. Judi entered the British Air program in the middle of what she describes as "the worst year we ever had" when the retail industry was battered by the recession. Rather than wallow in her slump, Judi said the program "forced me to move forward by thinking about expansion."

Among her clients are Gucci, Nordstrom, Juicy Couture, Pixar, and even The Art Institute of Chicago which needed mannequins for an exhibition. But what had eluded Judi Henderson-Townsend was an international partnership to reach retailers overseas who wanted mannequins for US events. Online she started an email exchange with an English company, Mannakin Ltd, but soon realized "you can only go so far with electronic communication." The 2010 British Airways Face of Opportunity competition gave her the chance to meet her English counterpart. With her free ticket she flew to England to spend time at the company warehouse, outside of London, and found opportunities for partnering. "For one thing, my English partner was much more advanced in social networking than I was, but she needed my mannequin recycling expertise." Plus once they realized they could offer customers a seamless transition for their mannequin rental needs on both sides of the Atlantic, they forged a referral agreement. When Levi-Strauss in France contacted Judi for mannequins, she referred them to her new English partner.

Racing into international expansion

International expansion in racing is taking a new leap. 

V8 Supercars could follow the Formula One cars and race around the world soon according to The Daily Telegraph.  

Last year, Australia's premier motor racing series was granted an FIA licence to hold six races in other countries.

The category already has a race in Abu Dhabi and another in New Zealand.

Singapore looks likely to join Qatar on next year's calender if a suitable venue can be found.

"There is no doubt we are very interested in exploring our options," V8 Supercars CEO Martin Whitaker said.

"The people here in the Middle East are very enthusiastic about their racing and always very welcoming, so it makes sense to put a double-header back on the bill.

Pandora's international expansion hampered by country-specific licensing schemes

International expansion through licensing is a multi-billion dollar business; but diverse licensing schemes are sometimes an obstacle. 

As reported in paidcontent.org, The just-filed IPO documents by Pandora Media show a company on the rise. The popular web radio service served up more than one billion (yes, with a ‘B’) listener-hours in the final quarter of 2010—a five-fold usage increase in two years. But read the S-1 with the term “copyright” highlighted—as I just did—and you’ll also see some big challenges for Pandora and any other web radio services that hope to make it big.

Pandora wants to go global, but its business model relies on copyright rules that are unique to the U.S. If the bad news for a service like Pandora is that it has to pay big fees to copyright owners, the good news is that paying those fees is relatively straightforward. That’s because the fees are paid under a “statutory licensing” scheme. Pandora can make copies of any legally released sound recording on its servers and stream them online, as long as it pays those fees. It doesn’t have to negotiate with every individual record label. But in other countries, the negotiations are more complicated. For now, Pandora acknowledges that without U.S.-style statutory licensing laws, moving into other countries is prohibitively expensive.

There’s still plenty of growth Pandora can do in the U.S. But in the long term, they’ve got to solve this international copyright problem. With 80 million registered users, more than one-third of U.S. internet users are already signed up at Pandora. Not all those registered users are active, but Pandora is probably going to reach a tipping point at which basically any potential U.S. users have heard about the service and made their choice to either use it or not. The advertising market is competitive and they can only raise rates so much; to really keep their stock price moving, international expansion will become vital at some point.

IMAX CEO describes international expansion plans

IMAX CEO describes international expansion plans

<p>VIDEO: IMAX CEO describes international expansion plans from The Deal on Vimeo.</p>

After making the jump to the New York Stock Exchange from the Nasdaq, IMAX Corp. CEO Richard Gelfond spoke with The Deal Magazine's Richard Morgan about the company's growth prospects and what the boom in new movie screens in China means for the motion-picture-technology company. - George White

International expansion continues at Gap

Gap Inc. Continues International Expansion

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 09, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Gap Inc. (GPS

 21.40, +0.18, +0.85%) today announced that customers in eight additional European countries can shop Gap and Banana Republic online through its dedicated European e-commerce sites. Customers in these additional countries can immediately shop the English language version of the websites, pay in GBP (British Pounds) and have their order shipped right to their doorstep in as little as 2-3 days for an introductory flat rate of GBP 6.

These dedicated sites were first launched to customers in the UK in August 2010 and expanded to include nine additional European countries in October 2010. With this recent expansion European customers in 18 countries can now buy from our dedicated European sites. They provide a fast, easy shopping experience for customers, with reliable, convenient, European shipping and no hidden charges or fees.

...

Gap Inc. is focused on executing its global growth strategy -- which includes franchise, online and company-owned expansions - and continues to enter new markets around the world. The company expanded its reach internationally in 2010 by opening its first Gap and Banana Republic flagship stores in Italy, and its first company-owned Gap stores and online retail site in China -- www.gap.cn. With today's announcement, Gap Inc.'s products are now available to customers in more than 90 countries - up from 25 at the start of fiscal year 2010. Customers in 21 of those countries can now purchase Gap Inc. products online through dedicated e-commerce sites.

About Gap Inc.

Gap Inc. is a leading global specialty retailer offering clothing, accessories and personal care products, for men, women, children, and babies under the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, and Athleta brands. Fiscal 2010 sales were $14.7 billion. Gap Inc. products are available for purchase in over 90 countries worldwide through about 3,100 company-owned stores, about 175 franchise stores, and e-commerce sites. 

SOURCE: 

Gap Inc. Europe: Jess Christie, +44 20 7149 1491 jess_christie@gap.com or United States: 1(800) 333-7899 ext. 75900, option 1 press@gap.com

Copyright Business Wire 2011 

You need dynamic publishing for international expansion

International Expansion recommends The Case for Dynamic Publishing

(a free ebook reviewed and available on Smashwords)

Delivering high-quality information has never been easy, but in the past fifteen years, the challenges in doing so have exploded: 
• Product innovation comes faster and faster
• Global expansion has become the key to revenue growth
• Regulations in many industries have become tighter 
• Social media and digital devices are new and compelling media that you must satisfy, even while print and Web remain critically important

Instead of asking authors and designers to hand-craft every page for every type of media, dynamic publishing shifts content creation to a structured approach using XML. XML is the basis for automating design, layout, and production, and it lets you quickly produce all of your document types on all media types and in all languages — whether you’re rolling out new materials or making minor changes to existing materials.

International Yacht Collection appoints new president for global expansion.

International Expansion People News

"There is no one better suited to expand IYC's worldwide brand," Chariman Felix Sabates said in a statement announcing the hire of Bob Saxon. “Bob Saxon's unrivaled reputation, his understanding of the totality of the modern yachting business and his ability to understand owners and their needs are critical to our global expansion.”

International expansion continues at CENX

INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION CONTINUES AT CENX, INC.

JERSEY CITY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CENX, Inc., operator of the world's first and most connected Carrier Ethernet exchanges with over 15m ESLs (Ethernet Service Locations), today announces the appointment of Herb Hribar as its Chief Executive Officer. Herb brings to CENX more than 35 years of hands-on executive leadership experience in telecommunications, playing pivotal roles in growth and financial success of multi-billion dollar wireless, fixed line carrier and cable operator organizations worldwide. "His hands-on operating expertise, international experience and value creation ability will play a critical role in CENX's accelerating global expansion and its continuing development of innovative solutions and creative business partnerships," said Nan Chen, co-founder and President of CENX.

International expansion for Tim Hortons

According to CBC News (and other sources), Canadian coffee shop chain Tim Hortons said Friday it planned to open more than 100 restaurants in the Gulf region as it continues to revamp its global expansion strategy.

Tim Hortons, which has more than 3,600 coffee shops in North America, said it signed an agreement with a Dubai-based company to open 120 stores across the Gulf Region. (Canadian Press)

The iconic coffee and donut seller said it reached an agreement with Dubai-based Apparel Group for up to 120 multi-format restaurants in markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

"Our due diligence has identified the GCC as an international development opportunity …," said Don Schroeder, president and chief executive officer at Tim Hortons.

The agreement provides for development in the region including United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. The group will open five restaurants in 2011.

Apparel Group operates more than 50 international brands and runs more than 600 stores in 14 countries including Tommy Hilfiger, Kenneth Cole, Aldo, Aeropostale, Nine West, and Cold Stone Creamery.

As of November 2010 Tim Hortons had some 3,649 restaurants system-wide, including 3,082 in Canada and 567 in the United States. It also has almost 300 self-serve kiosks in stores in Ireland and England as part of a joint-venture agreement.  It also retreated from Providence, R.I., and Hartford, Conn when it closed 36 stores late last year.

But, Tim Hortons has come under fire in recent years from analysts for not having a clearly defined expansion strategy. Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones in St. Louis, said the company should hone its North American strategy before looking at international expansion.