VFFranchise Consulting

14/08/2026

🥐 The first Korean bakery chain has planted its flag in Laos — with a 360-square-meter flagship, not a test kiosk.

When a brand with roughly 730 international stores commits to Vientiane at full scale, it tells you where ASEAN's franchise frontier is moving. The more interesting detail is who won the rights: a local conglomerate, not a regional operator.

🔸 Paris Baguette opened its first Lao store in Vientiane's Patuxay district — a 72-seat, full bakery-cafe format
🌍 Laos becomes the brand's 7th Southeast Asian market, after Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Cambodia
💰 Entry runs through a master franchise agreement with KOLAO Group, one of Laos' largest business groups
📈 The global network now spans about 730 stores across 13 overseas markets, including the US, France and the UK

💡 Frontier ASEAN markets are being opened by strong local platforms winning country rights from top-tier global brands. The groups that move first in markets like Laos will hold the best rights when the next wave of franchisors arrives.

Read more:

Paris Baguette has opened its first store in Laos under a master franchise with KOLAO Group, becoming the first Korean bakery chain in the country and its seventh Southeast Asian market.

13/08/2026

🍜 McDonald's just named a burger the way Vietnamese pho shops name themselves. That detail is worth more than a launch budget.

McDonald's Vietnam has relaunched its pho-flavoured burger under a Vietnamese name across its entire restaurant network in the country. Pho shops in Vietnam are habitually named after their owners, and the brand borrowed exactly that convention.

🔸 49 restaurants in Vietnam after more than a decade in market
📈 The pho burger first launched in 2020, now returning network-wide
💰 Sauce built on four pho spices: star anise, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves
🌏 Paired with freeze-dried Thai basil and sawtooth coriander

💡 Menu localisation is an operating decision, not a marketing campaign. Anyone can put the word pho on a menu board. Committing to sawtooth coriander inside a global QSR supply chain is a different level of intent, and it is the part local partners are best placed to get right.

Read more:

McDonald’s Vietnam has relaunched its pho-flavoured burger under a Vietnamese name across all 49 restaurants. Why menu localisation is an operating decision, not a marketing campaign, for franchise brands entering Asia Pacific.

12/08/2026

🥩 A new Texas Roadhouse now opens at roughly 98% of the volume of an established one. That number should interest anyone about to sign a franchise agreement.

In Q2 2026, restaurants open under six months averaged US$180,822 in weekly sales, up 10.4%. Mature comparable restaurants averaged US$183,982. The ramp period has almost disappeared.

🔸 832 restaurants system-wide, up 35 year on year
📈 62 international franchise locations, double the 31 domestic franchise units
💰 Quarterly revenue up 11.1% to about US$1.68 billion
🌍 Jaggers, the group fast-casual format, now at 11 company and 7 franchise units

💡 A near-zero sales ramp is the most valuable thing a franchisor can offer a master franchisee, because it shortens the period the partner funds losses. Worth noting the other side too: commodity inflation hit 7% and restaurant margin fell 66 basis points.

Read more: https://vffranchiseconsulting.com/texas-roadhouse-832-locations-new-restaurant-sales-q2-2026

11/08/2026

📍 Singapore · 13–14 August 2026
VF Franchise Consulting is bringing 16 international franchise brands to Singapore on 13–14 August 2026 for two days of private, pre-scheduled 1-to-1 meetings.
The session is built for investors and operating groups evaluating master franchise or multi-unit area developer rights across Asia and MENA.

🍽 F&B
• Texas Roadhouse — 750+ restaurants, 49 states, 10 countries · from US$3M
• Ho***rs — 40 years, globally recognised brand · from US$1.5M
• PizzaExpress — 450+ restaurants worldwide · from US$1.5M
• Jaggers — American fast casual, Technomic “Hot Concept” · from US$1.5M
• Abiko Curry — Korea’s largest curry chain, 130+ locations · from US$750K
• AseerTime — 288+ locations across 15 countries · from US$500K
• Farouj Abo El Abd — Lebanese grilled chicken, 139+ branches · from US$500K

💪 Fitness & Wellness
• Crunch Fitness — 500+ locations, 7 countries · from US$2M
• Physique 57 — the New York barre method · from US$500K
• Damo Hair Loss Solution — 16 years in the making, now open to Asia · from US$500K

🛍 Retail, Education & Services
• Build-A-Bear — 600+ stores, 32 countries · on application
• Kangaroo Team — premium sports-play, ages 1–6 · from US$300K
• Sanondaf — UK touchless disinfection, 10 countries · from US$250K
• LIQITOMIC — anatomical waste management · from US$250K
• GapMaps — location intelligence, 25+ countries · from US$15K

Plus VF Franchise Licensing, for partners who want to run our advisory model in their own market.

Invitation-only. Only qualified applicants receive an appointment.

👉 Request an invitation: https://lnkd.in/gwFy8u5z

Email: [email protected] | Hotline: +84 90 306 54 58

11/08/2026

🧘 Club Pilates just opened in Bangkok. For anyone weighing boutique fitness in this region, that matters more than the 1,500-studio headline.

The brand has crossed 1,500 studios worldwide and is entering new countries through master franchising rather than selling studios one at a time. The structure is the story here.

🔸 1,500 studios globally, the largest Pilates brand by studio count
📈 Latest openings: Bangkok, Thailand and Mexico City, Mexico
💰 Growth route is master franchise, meaning country-level rights
🌍 More than 24,000 instructors trained through a 450-hour certification

💡 A brand crossing 1,500 units has usually stopped debating its format and started allocating territory. That is exactly the window in which country rights get awarded, and then stop being available.

Read more:

Club Pilates has passed 1,500 studios worldwide after openings in Bangkok and Mexico City, expanding internationally through master franchising. What the milestone signals for boutique fitness investors in Asia Pacific and MENA.

05/08/2026

🔰bhc, one of South Korea’s biggest fried chicken chains, has opened its first restaurant in the Philippines, planting its flag at SM North EDSA in Quezon City — one of the country’s largest shopping malls.

💥 The debut, operated under a master franchise agreement with Philippine retail group Suyen Corporation, extends the brand’s Southeast Asia footprint and adds another chapter to the Korean F&B wave sweeping the region.

👉 Read more:

Korean fried chicken chain bhc has opened its first Philippine store at SM North EDSA in Quezon City under a master franchise agreement with Suyen Corporation, extending its Southeast Asia footprint.

04/08/2026

🏨 Radisson signed 10 hotels across India in a single week, without buying a square metre of real estate.

For anyone weighing how to enter South Asia, the structure matters more than the headline count. Asset-light means the local owner funds the building and the brand supplies distribution.

🔸 10 properties across seven states and six Radisson brands, taking the India portfolio past 225 hotels in operation and under development
📈 More than half that portfolio now sits in Tier-II and Tier-III cities rather than the eight metros
💰 Growth runs on franchise agreements and management contracts — greenfield builds, conversions of independent hotels, or pure management
🌏 Three of the 10 sit in pilgrimage towns (Tirupati, Mathura Vrindavan, Kadapa), markets that historically ran on unbranded guesthouses

💡 The read for brands eyeing Asia Pacific: ten signings in a week is a distribution story, not a construction story. Insisting on company-owned metro flagships means competing for the most expensive square metres in the country while the volume gets written elsewhere.

Read more:

Radisson Hotel Group has signed 10 new hotels across seven Indian states, taking its India portfolio past 225 properties. The batch shows how far asset-light, franchise-led hotel growth has moved into pilgrimage towns and Tier-II cities.