With the recent entry into the South African market of a large number of new franchises, particularly in the fast food sector – think queues around the block at the openings of Burger King and Starbucks, the arrival of Domino’s Pizza and Krispy Kreme and the proliferation of so many other franchises in just about all industry segments, it is no wonder that franchising contributes almost 12.5% to South Africa’s GDP. The potential for these franchises to contribute even more lies not only in generating increased sales of their respective products and services, but in the business to business opportunities that exist between them. “We have franchise operations in almost every industry sector,” commented John Baladakis, former Chairman of the Franchising Association of South Africa , proponent of ‘buying local’, “From FMCG, real estate, education, retail, and in automotive related activities. If each and every one of these businesses pledged to procure locally grown, produced and man...