Franchise India, Religare tie up for Rs 500-crore loan

The industry size is expected to reach $35 billion by 2020.

Franchise India, an integrated franchise solution company, has tied up with leading diversified financial services group Religare Enterprises Ltd to provide Rs 500-crore (Rs 5-billion) loan for small businesses, especially franchise owners in a span of two years.

“We have tied up with non-banking financial company, Religare for providing Rs 500-crore (Rs 5-billion) loan to small businesses, especially franchise companies.

“The facility would be launched on December 10 and the loan would be disbursed in two years.

“Our aim is to offer express loans,” said Gaurav Marya, chairman of Franchise India.

Marya said, the objective was to help prospective franchise owners and also to help existing ones to scale up their business.

The country’s franchise industry is estimated at $24 billion with a year-on-year growth of 30 per cent.

The industry size is expected to reach $35 billion by 2020, said Marya.

Stating that small businesses are the future for economies like Odisha, he said, “Odisha is producing one of the highest number of graduates, but unfortunately there is hardly any job creation.

There is the mining industry here, but the graduating students are more keen to join the retail and service industries.

Unless we create service and retail jobs, these graduates cannot be absorbed.”

The Franchise India chief said, Odisha has 16,000 active franchises with 45 per cent of them in the retail sector.

“In Odisha, we have helped build franchises for brands like ITC, Arvind Ltd, Lotto, Being Human and Madura and premium jewellery brands like Tanishq and Gitanjali.

“We are scouting for franchises in Odisha for SportsFit, a sports gym brand owned by cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni,” he said.

Asked if the outlook for retail sector has looked up under the new government, he said, “The sentiment has improved under the Narendra Modi government.

“But real consumption will happen only when people’s income grows.

“This calls for alignment of policies pursued by the centre and the state governments.

“The Prime Minister’s call for ‘Make in India’ is laudable but growth has to be more consumption driven.

“Our aim is to empower the small and medium businesses. We are helping the local entrepreneurs to grow,” he stated.