The Franchising & Business Opportunities Expo last weekend attracted the biggest number of visitors to the Melbourne event since 2017.
Exhibition organiser Fiona Stacey, at Specialised Events, said the promotional strategy deployed this year had reaped rewards.
“We’ve put a greater focus on social and digital marketing, and for the first time did billboard advertising,” she said. “There has been a high level of interest from visitors, and exhibitors are reporting a good number of, and good quality, leads.
“It’s exciting to see international brands attending, and we had three international groups participating. Malaysia, Philippines and Taiwan, each bringing a number of brands interested in the Australian market.”
The Philippine Department of Trade and Industry and the Philippine Franchise Association brought six brands to the Melbourne 2024 franchising expo. Sherill Quintana, the association’s past president and current chair, said the brands are ready for the Australian market.
“At this point we are ready. We are able to meet Australia’s stringent requirements and we are looking for partners to bring the brands over.”
Exhibitor brands
Nearly 120 exhibitors participated at the expo, most of them franchise brands. These included established firms who regularly participate, some well-known brands trying out the expo market after a few years, and brand new entrants.
Poolwerx is a regular exhibitor. Mike Geddes, franchise development manager, said it was good to be part of the expo and support the franchise sector.
“It’s nice to be in the Melbourne market opening up to new opportunities and candidates. If we can convert one or two of our leads it will have been a successful show,” he said.
Gym chain Plus Fitness was an exhibitor for the first time in many years. John Miller said the business has a goal of another 100 gyms to add to its 200 gym footprint across Australia, and the Victorian market is a particular target.
Gordon Martin, head of franchising at Viva Leisure which owns Plus Fitness, said the expo had been very promising.
“The brand is well-known and we’ve had lots of conversations which we’ll be following up.”
Annette Tierney, general manager at Kool Kidz Childcare, said “The show for us has been really successful. We’ve met a lot of people and we hope to secure some future relationships out of it.”
Grant Nye, at Kitset Assembly Services, said the expo had outperformed the Sydney event earlier this year both in number of leads, and the quality of leads. “Sunday was the best day for volume of leads,” he said.
Kitset took floor space in addition to its booth, and ran a competition for visitors who had the chance to assemble an IKEA bedside table in a race against the clock.
Next year Nye plans to take a bigger space at all three franchising expos: Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
Next year’s expo line-up
The Brisbane 2025 (26-27 July) event will be the first time for three years the expo has run in Queensland. The Sydney expo kicks off the exhibition season on 24-25 May 2025 and Melbourne is the final event on 30-31 August 2025.
Specialised Events is expanding the expo footprint and audience reach next year, adding a dedicated ‘Start a business’ area aimed at attracting young entrepreneurial visitors.
This initiative has grown from the successful Start Your Own Business Workshops hosted in the seminar theatre at the start of each day.
