Today, you run a restaurant chain that’s a huge success in France. Your operations are well-established, your franchisees are profitable, and your brand has made a name for itself. Little by little, an idea begins to take shape: why not expand your restaurant chain abroad?
Opening a franchise abroad is a tremendous opportunity, but let’s be realistic: there’s a world of difference between the theory in strategy textbooks and the reality of a rush hour on a Friday evening 4,000 kilometers away from your headquarters.
At Innovorder, we support the growth of brands like yours every day. We offer a highly practical guide, based on real-world experiences and feedback from those who have done it—such as the Bagelstein brand—to help you successfully expand your franchise abroad.
If you’ve managed to establish yourself in the French market, you already have a major competitive advantage. France is one of the most demanding markets in the world when it comes to the restaurant industry.
French cuisine and concepts enjoy an unparalleled reputation abroad. Whether you run a premium bakery, a gourmet burger joint, a coffee shop, or a bagel shop, “French savoir-faire” is a goldmine from both an operational and marketing standpoint. If your business model can withstand the fierce competition in Paris, Lyon, or Marseille, you can feel confident about your next challenge.
Understand this: your local success is your best ticket to an international franchise network.
Building a network exclusively within the domestic market leaves you directly exposed to the vagaries of the local economy. Whether it’s a decline in purchasing power, recruitment challenges, or rising energy costs, relying on a single country poses a strategic risk.
In this sense, expanding your franchise internationally acts as a stabilizer for your business. When the European market slows down, your retail locations in more dynamic geographic areas step in to take over and safeguard your group’s overall profitability. Furthermore, having a multi-country network gives you significantly greater bargaining power with global suppliers and helps smooth out regional logistical fluctuations.
Not all business concepts are equally easy to export. The models that are most successful in establishing franchises abroad share two key characteristics: a clear and understandable business proposition and standardized processes.
Three models are particularly well-suited to this exercise in international replication:
The more your processes rely on automated equipment rather than a highly skilled workforce (which is often hard to find or too expensive abroad), the better equipped your business model is to expand internationally.
To make a successful decision, ask yourself two questions: Who funds the restaurants, and with whom do you share power?
You sign a contract directly with an independent foreign contractor. They invest their own capital and assume the financial risks (construction work, point-of-sale equipment). This model is ideal for neighboring countries (Belgium, Switzerland, Spain), where the legal frameworks and consumer habits are similar to ours, allowing your staff to respond quickly.
This is the go-to model for a multi-country rollout and global expansion. You sell the exclusive rights to your brand across an entire territory to a master franchisee (a restaurant group or major investor). The master franchisee assumes the financial risk, opens pilot locations, and recruits and trains local sub-franchisees. You do not invest any capital and receive a percentage of their royalties.
Franchise model: You own 100% of the restaurant. Your company finances the entire project (construction, Innovorder kiosks, salaries). You bear all the risk, but you keep 100% of the profits. Ideal for a high-margin flagship location.
The joint venture: You establish a joint venture with a local partner (often on a 50/50 basis). You contribute the brand and technology, while the partner contributes their network and logistics. This is often a legal requirement for establishing a presence in certain countries (the Middle East, China).
Which countries are the most favorable for establishing a French franchise? The choice of a geographic area must be based on a fact-based analysis.
While Western Europe remains the most stable region due to harmonized regulations, the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia) and certain Southeast Asian markets represent the strongest drivers of growth.
They are seeing massive demand for Western concepts, driven by an urban, connected population with strong purchasing power.
To validate your target countries, systematically evaluate them using this checklist:
👉 See also: 4 Tips for Improving Your Franchise's Profitability
Succeeding internationally requires a healthy dose of humility: a concept that works well in Paris almost always has to be reinvented to appeal to customers in New Delhi or Tokyo. Let’s take the example of the Bagelstein brand, founded by Thierry Veil, to understand how to balance brand DNA with local requirements.
When you’re expanding a restaurant concept internationally, your biggest challenge is logistics. In France, Bagelstein’s model relies on fresh, standardized ingredients that are delivered regularly. But what happens when you move to another continent?
In targeting a market like India, the brand faces two major challenges. First, smoked salmon—a star product in Europe—becomes a luxury imported ingredient subject to prohibitive taxes that would erode franchisees’ profit margins. Second, for cultural and religious reasons, beef (pastrami) is off-limits to a large portion of the population, and the demand for vegetarian or vegan alternatives is immense. If you don’t adapt your supply chain and your recipes, your restaurants will remain empty.
But does that mean you have to compromise your offering? The art of international franchising lies entirely in striking this balance. If you change your entire menu, you lose your identity. This is the paradox that all major chains face: McDonald’s sells paneer cheese in India, but sticks to its standard processes.
Your guiding principle must be clear: the product is adaptable (vegetarian recipes, local sauces), but the workflow in the kitchen and dining room must remain unchanged. To maintain this pace despite the new offerings, the founder of Bagelstein is relying 100% on the restaurant’s digital ecosystem:
"The package—which includes terminals, the cash register, and KDS—streamlines traffic in the dining area and prep work in the kitchen. It’s a comprehensive package that helps streamline traffic throughout the restaurant."
Better yet, Thierry Veil points out that technology helps offset the loss of familiar points of reference in a new market by intelligently promoting new local recipes:
"At the kiosk, we're much more proactive in making suggestions. That naturally improves upselling."
Bagelstein made a name for itself in France thanks to its irreverent marketing, offbeat tone, and punchlines displayed on walls. While this humor works perfectly in France, it may prove completely inappropriate—or even offensive—in countries with more conservative or religious cultures.
To successfully expand its franchise overseas, the brand had to adapt its messaging: it retained its urban and dynamic spirit, but toned down cultural references that were too Western or divisive. The product is adapted, the marketing is refined, but operational rigor remains unchanged.
But how can we measure the impact of these cultural adjustments and ensure that the concept remains appealing even thousands of kilometers away? For Thierry Veil, the answer lies not in intuition, but in the surgical monitoring of performance:
“I have all the data from my network available in real time on my smartphone. It’s not just data. It’s analyzed data that comes with an action plan. The ‘top’ and ‘flop’ rankings show us exactly where we have room for improvement.”
Assessing the financial viability of your project abroad isn’t simply a matter of copying your French Excel spreadsheet: expanding into international markets involves radically different rules of the game and investments.
Expanding outside of France involves specific expenses that can derail your projections if overlooked. To develop a realistic international business plan, you must factor in cross-border legal fees, local trademark registration fees, airfare, and relocation expenses for your launch teams, as well as the cost of bringing your kitchen equipment up to local standards (electrical or sanitary) from the very beginning.
If you opt for the master franchise, keep in mind the reality of the return on investment: the initial franchise fee is primarily used to cover these engineering and support costs. Your true long-term profitability will come from royalties based on sales volume, once the partner has opened their first restaurants.
You don’t have to shoulder the entire financial burden on your own. In France, major institutional partners can help you secure your deployment plan:
Business France’s Export Report is very clear on this point: government support is the best way to ensure a solid start. By taking advantage of these resources, you’re not just seeking grants—you’re tangibly reducing the financial risk of your project. It’s the essential boost needed to turn a complex venture into a well-managed rollout plan.
This is the most common hidden cost—and yet the most strategic one. To manage your network remotely, you need a robust, unified technology infrastructure. Never let a master franchisee choose their own local point-of-sale software on their own under the pretext of saving money in the short term. The technology (POS systems, kiosks, kitchen displays) must be an integral part of the mandatory package required upon signing the contract.
👉 See also: How to Secure Financing for Your Restaurant Franchise?
If you have to hop on a plane every time you want to check the average ticket size or hourly productivity of your restaurants in Madrid, Berlin, or Dubai, your model isn’t scalable. Deploying unified technology tools is the only way to maintain operational control of your network.
To effectively manage your business internationally, you need to view your digital ecosystem not simply as a billing tool, but as the true hub of your points of sale.
This is the vision championed by Thierry Veil: the Innovorder system centralizes all of the restaurant’s operations (orders, inventory, kitchen management). Internationally, this central system must communicate directly with your corporate headquarters.
A good technology tool must be able to adapt to your franchisees’ local constraints while providing you with clear, centralized information. This is precisely the strength of an ecosystem like Innovorder, designed to support the international growth of franchise networks:
With advanced analytics modules like Atlas, you no longer have to wait for your franchisees to send you their monthly activity reports to find out how your network is performing.
With just a quick glance at your centralized dashboard, you can monitor your KPIs and adjust your strategy based on them:
Whether they’re placing an order at a restaurant in Paris or abroad, your loyal customers should experience the same seamless process. Intuitive ordering kiosks and standardized ordering processes enhance the perceived value of your brand while securing revenue for your partners.
International expansion requires absolute legal rigor to protect your assets. Beyond a simple commercial contract, the entire structure of your company (whether it is an SARL or an SAS) and your original articles of incorporation may need to be adapted to provide a legal framework for cross-border operations without taking excessive risks.
The most critical clause is the Development Schedule. You must specify in the contract the exact number of mandatory openings per year. If your partner fails to meet this schedule, the contract must allow you to regain exclusive rights to the territory and grant them to another operator.
Don’t wait until you start negotiating to take action. You must register your trademark, logos, and domain names in the target country before making any serious contact. The risk of a local player registering your trademark on your behalf and then reselling it to you at a high price is a common reality.
In the event of a major dispute, avoid local civil courts, which can sometimes be protectionist. Always include a clause providing for recourse to a neutral international arbitration tribunal (such as the International Chamber of Commerce) and specify that the contract remains governed by French law.
👉 See also: Case Study: 5 Successful Fast-Food Franchises
High-performing networks invest heavily in training by bringing future managers from abroad to their French branches for several weeks. Finally, they rely on a standardized digital ecosystem that is capable of operating in the local language while centralizing performance data for the network headquarters.
Ultimately, expanding across borders doesn’t require reinventing your business—it requires strengthening your systems. Successful expansion is the perfect blend of a kitchen that adapts locally and digital tools that remain centralized globally. By maintaining control over your data and processes from day one, you give yourself the luxury of growing quickly without ever losing control of your empire. So, are your teams ready for their first international venture?
Our Innovorder experts understand the realities on the ground and the operational requirements of large networks: talk to them to ensure the success of your project abroad.
.jpg)
