One of the main challenges facing towns today is to liven up their centers in such a way that residents enjoy living there. To achieve this, they rely on a variety of levers, from the diversity of shops and services to parking facilities, entertainment, housing and leisure facilities. In this context, franchising has a card to play and can position itself as an important lever of downtown dynamism.
The French love their city centers. These are the findings of the5th baromètre du Centre-Ville et des Commerces conducted by CSA/Clear Channel for Centre-Ville en Mouvement. This survey, carried out in October 2020, demonstrates the French people’s attachment to their city centers, which they see as an essential part of the French art of living. An art they intend to keep alive. As a result, many people are concerned about the future of their favorite neighborhoods, and have high expectations in terms of commercial dynamism. For 90% of them, shopping in city-center stores is even a civic act. Against this backdrop, a number of levers are at work to revitalize town centers, and franchises have their part to play.
Franchising: a variety of concepts and local shops for town centers
Franchises are key players in the local retail sector, enabling well-known brands to establish themselves in many towns and cities. Set up in the center of town, they benefit local residents, who are happy to be able to buy their favorite brands just a few steps from home. The franchising system, as a vector of attractiveness, appears to be highly conducive to the revitalization of town centers. All the more so as franchisees are generally self-employed and highly committed to their business. As a result, they are often involved in local life or neighborhood associations. “Franchises play a real locomotive role. When they’re placed in the right place and in a way that’s consistent with the retail plan, they project a positive, reassuring image and radiate throughout the entire retail network,” confirms Margaux Pemzec, coordinator and developer of Centre-Ville de Mantes-La-Jolie.
Aware of the role they have to play, some chains are deploying concepts specifically dedicated to city centers. In these areas, they give priority to franchising and target smaller and smaller towns. Some sectors are perfectly suited to the center’s particular features. Brands targeting an urban, active clientele are very well received. These include original, healthy or vegan restaurant concepts, coffee shops, salad bars and more. Local shops such as wine cellars and grocery stores are also well suited to the city center, providing a diversity of activities appreciated by local residents. Attracted by the wide range of retailers in town, both city dwellers and suburbanites enjoy moving to the center, which caters to needs other than those of retail parks on the outskirts.
Relying on a city manager: a win-win partnership?
Town center manager: didn’t you know about this job? Yet it is a key player in the vitality of our town centers and in retail location strategies. One of its roles is to help towns and cities diversify their retail offer to meet the needs and expectations of their residents. It acts as an intermediary between economic players (retailers, property developers, independent entrepreneurs, franchisees, chambers of commerce, etc.) and the municipality. With precise information on the state of the local real estate market, the city center manager can provide invaluable assistance to a future franchisee wishing to set up in the city.
When asked about her job, Margaux Pemzec describes it as a role of facilitator. “A town center manager animates and develops his center. Promotion involves supporting retailers’ associations, proposing initiatives to win new customers and promoting marketing tools. As for development, it involves modernizing shops via, for example, our innovation fund, structuring the merchandising plan, assisting project initiators (whether for creation, takeover or transfer), welcoming investors and promoters and, of course, canvassing for retail networks, as we did at the Franchise Expo trade show”.
Some of these professionals are particularly fond of franchise projects, which they prefer to branches. Indeed, they believe that franchisees, as entrepreneurs and business leaders, are personally invested in the success of their outlets. He’ll be more likely to take part in local life, and to know his customers and market environment well. This position puts him in a better position than a branch manager to share information on local life and key economic indicators. “The city center manager assists future franchisees in their search for financing and the identification of suitable business locations, so that they are in the best possible position to set up shop. It also helps them with all administrative procedures in conjunction with the town’s departments (town-planning files, terraces, events, etc.). “says Margaux Pemzec.
Beware of loss of identity in town centers
A Zara, a Brioche Dorée, a Promod, a Nicolas, a Hippopotamus, a Franprix: from Lyon to Bordeaux by way of Paris, it’s often the same brands we come across in town. Franchises are often criticized for standardizing or even losing the identity of their city centers. In particular, local residents deplore the fact that, as they move into town, they are gradually taking the place of local businesses rooted in the town’s cultural heritage. The urban landscape is emptied of its small, traditional shops, replaced by well-known names already present in all other French town centers. Aware of this problem, and out of a concern to keep their customers happy, many franchisors play the game and adapt their concept to local constraints. This is the case, for example, of the Pokawa brand, which ensures that its recipes and mindset correspond to the tastes and culture of its local clientele.
For Margaux Pemzec, however, franchising is not necessarily synonymous with uniformity. We see independent retailers opening a second store as a franchise, and others duplicating their Mantais concept as a franchise following their success,” she notes. The city center is a real laboratory for our retailers. The important thing is to have a good mix of independents and franchisees, who are once again not incompatible.”
In this respect, the town center manager is often the guarantor of a win-win partnership between the town and economic players. To this end, he can use his right of pre-emption of the business, lease or leasehold rights, granted by the Dutreil law in 2005. This right enables it to refuse the installation of a sign in a given area if it considers that this would be detrimental to the policy of diversifying local commerce. In other words, if the downtown manager feels that there are already enough bakeries or nail bars in the same area, he can refuse to set up another business of this type there.
