Franchising has matured, but that does not mean that franchising will not continue to change. To appreciate this comment, one must take a trip in time back to the 1960s, when commercial franchising was in its formative years. Actually, modern franchising even goes back another decade or two with the growth of now legendary brands, such as McDonald’s, Holiday Inns, Kentucky Fried Chicken and the like. In the 1950s, it is doubtful that anyone would have thought that 50 or so years later, these chains would become the behemoths we have today. A recent count showed there were 36,899 McDonald’s restaurants and 44,588 Subways, each being systems that generate multi billions of dollars per year for their owners. Although Ray Kroc was certainly a man of vision, as portrayed in the recent movie, The Founder, did he ever imagine that the growth of the McDonalds system would be as great as it has been? The same could probably be said for the late Fred DeLuca, the founder of Subway.
Not only are there large restaurant systems, franchising is now being used in over 85 industries to create and distribute products and services. What is more, while franchising had its beginning as a method of delivering products to consumers, now it is used substantially to deliver services as well. But one must keep in mind that franchising is simply a method of distribution. Some people refer to it as an industry, but it is not.
