25 May 1998

The Franchise Excellence Awards (FEA), which confer a stamp of recognition on the best performing franchise companies in Singapore, is now open for nominations.

Launched last year, the FEA is jointly organised by the Singapore Trade Development Board (TDB), Singapore Productivity and Standards Board (PSB) and Arthur Andersen (AA) and supported by the Singapore International Franchise Association (SIFA).

There are four categories in the FEA:

In addition to distinguishing the outstanding franchise companies, the FEA was introduced to:

"The concept of franchising has been increasingly accepted and practised by Singapore enterprises both for their domestic development as well as for their international business expansion. We encourage companies to make use of the Franchise Excellence Awards as the platform to showcase their capabilities to the international markets," said Mr Tham Hock Chee, Director of Business Development, TDB.

Says Mr. Steven Phan, Head of Arthur Andersen Business Consulting, "The current economic conditions have created new opportunities for businesses' expansion strategies. We are finding that there is continued interest and commitment from both local and foreign companies to looking at franchising, when developing their plans, to penetrate new and non-traditional markets and when taking long-term positions in the region."

Last year saw Popular Book Co (Pte) Ltd, Informatics Holdings Ltd, Bee Cheng Hiang Hup Chong Foodstuff Pte Ltd and HRC Holdings Pte Ltd (for Hard Rock Café) winning the Domestic Franchisor of the Year, International Franchisor of the Year, Promising Franchisor of the Year and Regional Master Franchisee of the Year awards respectively.

The competition is opened to all franchisors and master franchisees based in Singapore. Nomination period is from 26 May 1998 to 15 July 1998. (Please see attached for entry criteria.)

Winners of the Franchise Excellence Awards will be recognised at an award ceremony held in conjunction with the Global Franchising '98 this November. The winners will have the right to use the FEA logo, as an endorsement and recognition of their position, on all their publicity material and stationery.