Countries, locations & application

Gonzales market policy

Country/area-level - Master Franchise contract: The basis of this contract between the Master Franchisor and the Master Franchisee is: the Master Franchisor has "the Concept know how" while the Master Franchisee has the "national/regional market know how". The Master Franchisor selects the countries/area's in which the licences are offered on general Concept criteria, the Master Franchisee judges the feasibility of the offered licences on national/regional market criteria.

Restaurant/local level - Franchise contract & lease: Regarding the market/location policy, the basis for this contract between Master Franchisee and Franchisee is: "the Master Franchisee selects locations on general Concept- and rollout criteria, while the Franchisee has to convince himself from the local market suitability, e.g. by analyzing the local competition and the consumer habits.

In the document Gonzales Market Policy the general concept criteria are described on both levels.

Licence area's for Master Franchisees

Demographic criteria: The break-even point of an average Gonzales Master Franchisee should be reached at 12-15 Franchisees, given a normal and correct execution of the concept. Therefore, the size of a Master Franchise licence area must offer space to open about 40 restaurants, which normally means a minimum of 10 million inhabitants. Secondly, the GDP should be at least US $ 20,000 per capita a year.

Weather criteria: Almost everyone likes barbecuing. Barbecuing is more than just eating: it's perceived as one of the most relaxed and cosiest ways of having dinner. But the certainty of warm weather without rain is necessary to enjoy it. The indoor-barbecue concept brings in the summer and barbecue joy all year. Hence, the conditions for success are optimized in countries in which the weather doesn't allow to barbecue outside many nights a year.

Other countries (smaller, warmer or poorer) would demand adjustments to the concept. The (im)possibilities for such adjustment will be analysed case by case.

Restaurant locations for Franchisees

Barbecuing at Gonzales is not just walking in and having a quick meal in a restaurant. We talk about slowfood instead of fastfood, it should be evening-filling entertainment, and visiting must be a little bit of an event: "fun around the fire". The more people around the fire, the more the fun! In many cases, there's a visiting occasion, such as a birthday, the yearly company's trip, the championship of the local soccer team, or just a relaxed evening with friends who finally got their agenda's matched. These characteristics of the concept have some important consequences:

(1) the average visiting frequency is probably just one or few times a year, (2) the guests are part of larger groups (3), most guests would want to make reservations in advance and (4) the restaurant should not necessarily be located in shopping or entertainment centres. Hence, Gonzales has proven itself at A, B as well as C locations, given the required amount of inhabitants within an acceptable travel time. On average this is 200,000 inhabitants. For a smaller area (min. 100,000), an A-location is required and for a larger area (200,000 to 300,000) a C-location would suffice.