The Maltese hospitality sector would be the most likely to be able to franchise its businesses, according to Farrah Rose, director of The International Franchising Centre, who will be advising Maltese traders over the next 10 months on the concept of franchising.
Ms Rose is in Malta as part of a franchising project administered by Malta Enterprise and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat which was officially launched on Tuesday.
Interviewed by The Times Business she says she believes Maltese companies have a huge potential to franchise their businesses. Ms Rose knows Malta well and has been advising Café Jubilee - which is opening a restaurant in Budapest this weekend - for the past four years.
She described the operators of Café Jubilee as "possibly one of the most refined operators that I have come across in the last 30 years of my experience in international franchise development."
Ms Rose says the Café Jubilee concept is "absolutely superb" and "quite unique" and their systems are "hugely developed".
She says she is extremely keen to take a look at the existing business infrastructure in Malta, both at a franchise level as well as an economic level and then to assess the relevance of franchising to some of the key entrepreneurs in Malta.
Ms Rose says that the franchising project in Malta will start as a result of research her organisation will be conducting in Malta to ascertain the existing infrastructure.
She says that initially she will be looking at sound businesses which are looking to franchise their business both in the domestic market and then with a view to take their franchised brand into international markets.
"We want to indentify local franchise operators, to help have franchise agreements signed, with a view to grow their Malta brand into other countries." She says that as a general rule the franchise sector has done quite well in the global recession.
"When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Franchisees, because they have their own well-being, their own investment at stake, have worked extremely hard in order to ensure they do stay on track. Franchising will grow and is one of the best methods of international marketing."
Ms Rose emphasises that franchising is a "fantastic marketing medium" which has worked well in so many different countries, in a variety of sectors.
"However, in order for you to make sure that you succeed in franchising you need to look at the five criteria, make sure you put together a very sound international development strategy that tells you which markets to go to and what the criteria are for selecting those markets."
"Just because somebody receives a phone call from somebody in Bolivia doesn't mean Bolivia is the right market for them," she says.