BRENNANS FRANCHISE ADVICE

bigaid1

i am currently considering taking a franchise with brennans around the midlands area. has anyone on this site been through this with brennans before.

i am looking for hints and tips, any pitfalls, or are the benefits good enough to counter any pitfalls.

any help would be greatly appreciated as i don't want to run into something blind and make a whole arse of myself.

if you want to PM me to preserve your identity, feel free

also posted in work and jobs

Culchie

I have never heard of Brennans (bread)... so that's a bad start straight away.

bigaid1

Culchie wrote: »

I have never heard of Brennans (bread)... so that's a bad start straight away.

yes, bread, anyone who has been there will know exactly who i am talking about

niceirishfella

is it a bread van run?

Bandara

I would have serious concerns about this.

Murgrave group is going pretty down the road of pretty much full warehouse supply, BWG are most likely going to look at it in the relatively near future as well. I don't know about Londis but I'd hazard a guess they might do the same.

Once that happens your bread round will loose deliveries to all Spars, Mace, XL's, Nearbuys, Centras, Supervalus, Eurospars, Londis etc etc

bearing in mind that there isn;t much left other than the crappy independents and tesco and dunnes (who can't be relied on not to throw you out in favour of cheaper bread) then I'd say its a line of work that facing some savage challenges.

You need to look into this very very closely

Good luck


HT

FightingIrish

I wouldnt be too worried about the 'threat' of central distribution to be honest, perishable goods, particulary bread has to be delivered on a daily basis.

The bread game is very hard work, but the rewards are good (financially), there are a lot of sacrifices to be made, very early starts 6 even 7 mornings of the week in all types of weather, so make sure your aware of what you are getting into!

I have been in the business for nearly 20 years although I am not a distributor, I liase closely with them.

ScouseMouse

FightingIrish wrote: »

I wouldnt be too worried about the 'threat' of central distribution to be honest, perishable goods, particulary bread has to be delivered on a daily basis.

The bread game is very hard work, but the rewards are good (financially), there are a lot of sacrifices to be made, very early starts 6 even 7 mornings of the week in all types of weather, so make sure your aware of what you are getting into!

I have been in the business for nearly 20 years although I am not a distributor, I liase closely with them.

Lidl already have central distribution on bread. It comes down by truck from the north during the day and goes out to the stores at night.

(Well, it did do when I worked there.)

FightingIrish

superscouse wrote: »

Lidl already have central distribution on bread. It comes down by truck from the north during the day and goes out to the stores at night.

(Well, it did do when I worked there.)

Yeah but it's all ****e quality, mostly baked in the UK, frozen and shipped over!!

Brennan's will do everything in their power to steer clear of CD, its all about power in the market place, they have the upper hand, brand leader by a long long shot!!

Bandara

FightingIrish wrote: »

Yeah but it's all ****e quality, mostly baked in the UK, frozen and shipped over!!

Brennan's will do everything in their power to steer clear of CD, its all about power in the market place, they have the upper hand, brand leader by a long long shot!!

With respect, Brennans will dance to whatever tune the central billing buyers tell them to, otherwise they will be replaced. Brand leader and brand name power is not going to matter a jot. If Brennans tomorrow do something that causes any inconvenience beyond the norm to my business I'll stop selling everything they do the next day without hesitation. And if you think that anything other than a tiny percentage of people will stop shopping with me because of that then IMO you would be wrong.

It's currently happening accross all the convenience chains with the previously untouchable cuisine de France, and it can easily happen to brennans too.

Simple example is spar brand bread, it's crap quality, skinny slices etc, I used to sell about 3 pans a day in one if my stores, now it do between a board and a board and a half. And brennans has been the loser.

Another example is Linwoods milk, it's killing avonmore on pure price alone. Brands are losing their value rapidly in the ultra convenience market in my humble opinion

congo_90

Hammertime wrote: »

With respect, Brennans will dance to whatever tune the central billing buyers tell them to, otherwise they will be replaced. Brand leader and brand name power is not going to matter a jot. If Brennans tomorrow do something that causes any inconvenience beyond the norm to my business I'll stop selling everything they do the next day without hesitation. And if you think that anything other than a tiny percentage of people will stop shopping with me because of that then IMO you would be wrong.

It's currently happening accross all the convenience chains with the previously untouchable cuisine de France, and it can easily happen to brennans too.

Simple example is spar brand bread, it's crap quality, skinny slices etc, I used to sell about 3 pans a day in one if my stores, now it do between a board and a board and a half. And brennans has been the loser.

Another example is Linwoods milk, it's killing avonmore on pure price alone. Brands are losing their value rapidly in the ultra convenience market in my humble opinion

Same with milk. Avonmore is pushing to get sales back up but everyone is buying the cheaper spar,tesco brand milk instead. I still like my brennans though.

PhatPiggins

Hammertime wrote: »

With respect, Brennans will dance to whatever tune the central billing buyers tell them to, otherwise they will be replaced. Brand leader and brand name power is not going to matter a jot. If Brennans tomorrow do something that causes any inconvenience beyond the norm to my business I'll stop selling everything they do the next day without hesitation. And if you think that anything other than a tiny percentage of people will stop shopping with me because of that then IMO you would be wrong.

It's currently happening accross all the convenience chains with the previously untouchable cuisine de France, and it can easily happen to brennans too.

Simple example is spar brand bread, it's crap quality, skinny slices etc, I used to sell about 3 pans a day in one if my stores, now it do between a board and a board and a half. And brennans has been the loser.

Another example is Linwoods milk, it's killing avonmore on pure price alone. Brands are losing their value rapidly in the ultra convenience market in my humble opinion

Couldn't agree more as price is the only driving factor, regardless of how bad the quality is.

Would you be worried that we're at the begining of the end for a lot of C-stores? People seem to be increasingly doing the entire shop in supermarkets and shuning the local/convenient shop.

I see Lidl and Aldi have planning permison applications for a number of convenience store sized(express) units around Dublin.

Sorry I know you have a vested interest in the market, I mean no offence.

DubTony

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Couldn't agree more as price is the only driving factor, regardless of how bad the quality is.

Would you be worried that we're at the begining of the end for a lot of C-stores? People seem to be increasingly doing the entire shop in supermarkets and shuning the local/convenient shop.

I see Lidl and Aldi have planning permison applications for a number of convenience store sized(express) units around Dublin.

Sorry I know you have a vested interest in the market, I mean no offence.

If they can stick a couple of petrol pumps in front of an Aldi, he might even try to run it for them.

I'd be of the opinion that many c-stores should never have been in business in the first place. Dodgy locations, bad managers / owners who have absolutely no clue what their local market needs. As for seeing the end of them? No. Not them all. There are many very good operators out there who know exactly what their customers want, and provide exactly that.

Some others (the crap ones) are getting by simply because the people in their area haven't been affected too badly by the recession. Where I live there are 2 Spar shops that offer nothing but the basics, but looking on the shelves, they don't even cover those properly. They stay in business because the majority of householders that use them are not mortgaged up to the neck and obviously feel secure in their jobs. Superquinn and Tesco have both moved into the convenience sector, but don't seem to have impacted the market massively. Ranelagh is a good example of this where both the Spar and Centra are still trading despite Superquinn opening in the immediate vicinity (although I've no idea how hard they've been hit by the new store).

stepbar

DubTony wrote: »

If they can stick a couple of petrol pumps in front of an Aldi, he might even try to run it for them.

I'd be of the opinion that many c-stores should never have been in business in the first place. Dodgy locations, bad managers / owners who have absolutely no clue what their local market needs. As for seeing the end of them? No. Not them all. There are many very good operators out there who know exactly what their customers want, and provide exactly that.

Some others (the crap ones) are getting by simply because the people in their area haven't been affected too badly by the recession. Where I live there are 2 Spar shops that offer nothing but the basics, but looking on the shelves, they don't even cover those properly. They stay in business because the majority of householders that use them are not mortgaged up to the neck and obviously feel secure in their jobs. Superquinn and Tesco have both moved into the convenience sector, but don't seem to have impacted the market massively. Ranelagh is a good example of this where both the Spar and Centra are still trading despite Superquinn opening in the immediate vicinity (although I've no idea how hard they've been hit by the new store).

You picked an excellent example there Tony. The local Centra looks like it's under fierce pressure as any time I go in the shop is full of 2 for 1's, half price specials etc. I've live around there for 3 years and have never seen the same sort of discount selling as now. As for Spar, I can't understand how it's still trading. Superquinn ain't doing well either, I've noticed less staff about in recent months. Tesco in Rathmines seem to be taking up the batton. Some good deals at the moment.

FightingIrish

All good and valid points guys, facts are though, at the moment, Brennans are selling approx 1.7 million units a week, thats down 5% on last year, in this day and age, cheaper brands, people watching their pennies etc. 5% is nothing. JMOB for instance have been hit hard with the loss of the O'Brians contract in the last few days, they will struggle to replace those sales!!

Glenalla

bigaid1 wrote: »

i am currently considering taking a franchise with brennans around the midlands area. has anyone on this site been through this with brennans before.

i am looking for hints and tips, any pitfalls, or are the benefits good enough to counter any pitfalls.

any help would be greatly appreciated as i don't want to run into something blind and make a whole arse of myself.

if you want to PM me to preserve your identity, feel free

also posted in work and jobs

Be very wary about any franchise agreement as it is always stacked in favour of the franchisor, it is very important to seek impartial legal advice and, more importantly take it.