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Say It With a Bouquet
Candy Bouquet is a franchise with 820 stores in 40+ countries. Some are storefronts, the rest are virtual stores operated online by home based franchisees. Owner and founder, Margaret McEntire, started the company in her garage in 1989. It is now the largest retail candy chain in the world.
Candy and flowers have always gone together on Valentine's Day, but only Candy Bouquet combines them into one product. Franchisees create arrangements using candies and chocolates in place of flowers, sometimes using balloons or stuffed animals. "Valentine's Day is not only our biggest holiday, it is our biggest single day of the year," says McEntire. "Christmas can be big too, but it's spread out over a month. For Valentine's Day, everybody waits until the last minute before they start thinking about it."
Wendy's Franchise Most Americans would probably assume that Valentine's Day is an American holiday. But, according to McEntire, it is a worldwide phenomenon. "I didn't realize it until I started this business, but people do Valentine's Day elsewhere. I sold a franchise to a Malaysian princess years ago and she wasn't sure how well Valentine's Day would go there. She was surprised when even Malaysian teenagers were coming in with $100 to buy arrangements. Turns out, they considered it a value proposition because candy isn't going to die like cut flowers."
Here in the U.S., the most popular Valentine's Day bouquet is a dozen chocolate roses. There are also "patterns" like you might find at a wire service like FTD. "We have Valentine's Day kits so that a customer in L.A. can call a franchisee in New York and order kit #3. That's Chocolate Roses in dark chocolate," says McEntire.
Valentine's Day is important to Candy Bouquet but, surprisingly, corporate sales are big, too. "I had one guy in Minnesota who had a storefront, but he was doing so well with his corporate business he questioned the wisdom of paying all that rent," says McEntire. "He decided to close his shop and go homebased, just concentrating on his corporate business. Corporations like our products for birthdays, promotions, and Christmas gifts because it's usually less expensive than a gift basket. Plus, unlike a florist, we can really customize our arrangements to suit the particular corporate client, perhaps by including their product samples in the arrangement."
The candy used in the bouquets comes from all over the world. McEntire explains, "I get chocolates from Ireland, England, France, and Germany. But that's just a partial list. You name the candy factory, I've been there. I do try to stay away from junk candy though. I get ganache from a 5th generation chocolatier in Belgium and we have a whole line of bon bons that are made just for us."
Candy Bouquet is growing fast - it is among the top 100 fastest growing franchises. "This last year we grew faster than McDonald's," says McEntire. "This year, we've upped that by at least 20-25% more. And I don't see it slowing down at all."
What's behind this growth? It could be the quality and uniqueness of the product, but it might also be the easy entry. Franchise fees start at a mere $3,600 with a total investment ranging from only $7,400 to $48,000. That's about one-tenth the cost of most competing franchises. Then there are the royalties. Or rather, the lack of royalties. McEntire instituted a "no royalty fee" policy to avoid a conflict of interest with the franchisees. Instead, franchisees pay a flat monthly association fee of $35 to $200. The fee, which covers corporate expenses like office expenses and communications, is not tied to sales volume.
Wendy's Franchise "We don't do anything like anybody else," says McEntire. "This is about as clean cut a company as you can find. When I started, I used my own startup cash. We are still debt-free so the company is mine, period. It makes it pretty easy to get things done and we move at a very fast speed around here. It is a true Blue Ocean company."
When asked about future plans for the company, McEntire said, "We are going to keep buying auxiliary companies to help with this particular company. Right now, for example, we own a wire factory that makes wire pieces longer than the typical florist wire. And we have our cello custom made and have a lot of our own private label lines. I'm looking into everything from buying a bank to other chocolate candy companies."
For more information on the franchise oppotunities available, click here.