Retail food brand manager and franchisor, Retail Food Group (RFG), has recorded a 120 per cent spike in inquiries from potential franchisees during the past fortnight.

RFG owns the Donut King, Michel’s Patisserie, Brumby’s Bakeries and bb’s cafe franchise systems and recently acquired the Big Dad’s Pies and DCM Coffee and Donut franchise systems.

The inquiry spike comes as RFG begins to roll out its 2010 expansion strategy which will see it open an additional 20 stores across its network during the next six months.

“Compared to the same period 12 months ago, our inquiries are up 120 per cent during the past two weeks which has been really surprising,” said RFG national sales co-ordination manager, Faith Manning. “The inquiries have come from people across Australia and are usually couples aged 30 years and over.”

Manning believes that the surge is also due to people wanting to secure their financial future and minimise risk in the wake of the 2009 financial crisis.

“It seems people have worked hard through 2009, had a Christmas break and have taken that time to reconsider their future finances and employment,” she said.

“RFG is Australia’s largest multi-food franchise group and we have the experience, personnel, training systems and operational processes in place to position franchisees for operational success.”

Donut King is Australia’s largest specialty donut and coffee chain with more than 327 outlets nationally. Michel’s Patisserie consists of 337 outlets and Brumby’s Bakeries is one of the largest bakery networks in Australasia with more than 331 outlets. Bb’s cafe is a growing chain with 60 outlets across Australia and New Zealand.