Franchise statistics for Europe

The European Franchise Federation estimates there are nearly 10,000 franchises operating across the 20 countries.Turkey registers the most franchise brands with more than 1,600, followed by France with more than 1,300, Germany with 960, Spain with more than 900 and UK at more than 800 franchise brands.

These figures are based on 2009 statistics from the European Franchise Federation and the national franchise associations from each country.

Slovenia reports the smallest franchise sector with just 107 franchises, with growth of just one new franchise brand from 2008.  Slovenia also has the highest percentage of international franchises operating in the country at 48%.

The next two smallest franchise sectors are the Czech Republic with 150 franchise brands, and Croatia with 170.

Sweden reported the greatest growth of the European franchise sectors from 2008 to 2009 with 150 new franchise brands introduced within the 12 months, followed by France with 140 new franchise brands.

Italy has the greatest number of domestic or home-grown franchise brands at 96%, followed by the UK and France at 89%, and the Netherlands at 85%.

The only franchise sector to report a retraction in the number of franchise brands was Hungary with just nine franchise brands less reported than the year prior.

Austria also reported no growth in franchise brands with just 390 brands in 2006 and 2009, with no figures reported for the years in between.

Even Greece reported an increase in the number of franchise brands between 2008 and 2009, although only 3 new introductions.

Interestingly, despite the strength of the Australian franchise sector (and wider economy),  a much greater decline (of nearly 100) was reported in the number of franchise brands operating between the Franchising Australia 2008 and Franchising Australia 2010 research, to just over 1,000 brands.

(This was after several years of steady growth).

Franchising Australia 2012 results are due to be released in October and based on a recent franchise report by Price Waterhouse Coopers, the sector is anticipated to have grown in the number of franchise brands.

Without being able to delve deeper into franchising data on European countries and the reporting methods used, it’s hard to make comparisons, however it’s still interesting to see a snap shot of franchising in Europe.

Franchising New Zealand 2012 research findings are also due out later this year in partnership with Massey University, and the Centre is currently in negotiations to expand our franchising research further  across Asia to help provide greater comparisons, intelligence and insights.