Foreign entry mode case

STORYTOYS

Storytoys didn’t have an easy beginning. In first place, the people, who decided to be and take a charge in that project, they had the big feeling of their work and they started to takein practice their purpose. Well, they had clearly their purpose, but this one wasn’t easy to make it real.

The basic idea was create a big chain of stores specialized in toys, but not just onemore chain, they wanted something different, something with its own style. They noticed that all they wanted in the beginning, some of these aspects weren’t explored. Always, when you start a businessidea, there are some holes which became unnoticed for others.

First steps: One thing is to formulate your idea, one more or less abstract, and quite another to take your concept to the reality.

Ittook time, effort and imagination to find what they were looking for; after the failure of some initial steps; eventually, they found the clue: one kind of toy with personality and value added, aninnovative brand and a peculiar strategy to points of sale.

After the first shop in Kiruna, so it came the three new stores in Varberg, Visby, Gottemburg. At 1998 they had a store in Stockholm.Swetoy |
Main objectives |
* To get child feel happy and better with the toys * To give a complete development in children |
Values: |
* Quality * Safety * Education * Don'tsupport war * ¡So much fun! |

Franchising decision: They decided to start to franchise the brand in Sweden, this decision would let maximize the growth capability and keep a high control over theexpansion process of the company.

It’s about a franchising model; it’s very structured and demanding. At the same time, the company’s contributions in their own stores kept being high. This has madethe half sells of the team are through subsidiaries, basically.

Their fast market growth on Sweden took off all the attention of the team, and they didn't contemplate the chance of getting in on...