Fresh Life Foods (FLF) is investing €4 million in helping new franchisees set up branches of healthy food chain Freshii in a bid to increase the amount of Freshii outlets in Ireland from 13 to 30 over the next four years.

FLF, which owns Freshii’s master franchise for Ireland, operates three of the 13 stores currently doing business in the country. The Irish Independent reports that FLF chief executive Dave O’Donoghue explained, “We’ve opened three this year, we’ve visibility of a further three next year, and we’re just hoping that new sites will become available to us that suit the demographic. Finding locations is easily the biggest challenge to our growth and it has gotten more difficult over the last 12 months.”

Avoiding Dilution

O’Donoghue, who previously held the position of chief executive at Cuisine de France, added that he wants to avoid the Freshii brand becoming too diluted, saying, “When we made the plan we said we didn’t want this everywhere, we could have this in a lot more outlets than we already have.

“We wanted to keep Freshii special as it’s a destination, and we didn’t want to have mini-Freshiis in a load of convenience stores because I went down that route with Cuisine de France and what happens over a decade is you become ubiquitous. So your fresh products become associated with healthy food, but your brand isn’t resonating with the consumer.”

 

Source-